Talk about your wild endings.
Hickory Post 48 turned in a power display in the eighth and ninth innings, before defeating Burke County Post 21 on a wild pitch in the 10th inning 10-9 on Monday night at Henkel-Alley Field.
Post 48 (5-3 in Area IV West) scored the winning run in the 10th when Justin Sizemore led the inning off with a double, followed by a walk to JW Laney.
A sacrifice bunt by Cameron Beard put runners on second and third and after a Robert McKinney strikeout, Sizemore scored on a wild pitch to Gage Ward for the win.
Trailing 9-4 in the eighth inning, Hickory switched on the power. A single by Stefan Jordan, followed by a walk to Dustin Harrill led to a three-run home run by Sizemore to trim the lead to 9-7. Laney followed with a blast of his own over the right field fence to cut the Burke lead to 9-8.
With reliever Tyler Barnette's solid pitching and some fine defensive plays from Hickory third baseman Derek Hedrick, Post 48 shut down Burke County in the top of the ninth.
McKinney led off the home half of the ninth with a towering shot over the left field fence to knot the game at 9-all.
Hickory had a chance to win the game in the ninth as Jacob Lineberger reached on a walk and advanced to third on a two out single from Harrill, but a diving play by Burke shortstop Aaron Attaway ended the inning.
Barnette got Post 21 in order in the top of the 10th, before Hickory won the game in the bottom half of the inning.
"The beginning of the game was about as ugly as we could make it," said Hickory head coach Fore Rembert. "We dropped a lot of fly balls that I felt like we should have caught and threw some balls away while just trying to make routine plays.
"In the sixth inning, I just called them all together and challenged them to step up knowing that anytime these guys can explode for five, six, seven, even 10 runs. Offensively I feel like we are as good as anybody swinging the bats. We just have to get better defensively."
Burke County started out quick with Attaway opening the game with a double and later scoring when Corey Rhoney reached on an error for a 1-0 lead.
Post 48 came back in the bottom of the second on a walk to Laney, followed by a single by Beard to put runners on the corners. Laney then scored on a wild pitch to McKinney and Beard crossed on a double by Ward to lead 2-1.
Post 21 tied the game in the third and regained it in the fourth on back-to-back RBI singles from Josh Huskins and Rhoney to lead 4-2.
Burke added two more runs in the fifth inning when Nick Chapman doubled and Steve Dyson was hit by a pitch forcing a pitching change.
Barnette came on in relief for starter Markley, but a fielders choice by Tyler Hopkins, followed by an error on the same sequence allowed Dyson to score. Hopkins then scored on a sacrifice fly from Devin Villanueva for a 6-2 advantage.
After Rembert's talk in the sixth, Post 48 got two runs to trim the lead to 6-4, but Burke answered with three runs of its own in the seventh to push the lead to 9-4 and set up the late game Hickory rally.
"I feel like we are one of the top three or four teams in the league," Rembert said. "When we play hard, we can be as good as anybody."
Barnette picked up the win for Hickory, allowing five hits and five strikeouts in five and a half innings of work.
Justin O'Dear took the loss for Burke County (5-3 in Area IV West) after entering the game in the ninth.
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