ROCKY MOUNT – After winning three straight games out of the loser’s bracket to make it to within a game of making the state junior American Legion baseball tournament, the Cary Colts beat Ahoskie Post-102, 9-2, here Monday night in the final game of the Area-1 district playoffs.

After a scoreless first inning Cary opened the scoring with one run in the bottom of the second and led 1-0 after the first two innings of play.

The Colts scored two more runs in the bottom of the third and added two more in the bottom of the fourth to stake themselves to a 5-0 lead after four full innings of baseball.

Ahoskie finally got on track in the top of the fifth when they pushed their first run of the game across. David Watford reached first on an error and went all the way to third on an errant pickoff move by the Colts. Watford then scored on Slade Cowan’s groundout and trailed Cary 5-1 going to the bottom of the fifth.

Cary got their run back in the bottom of the fifth and scored their final three runs in the bottom of the sixth to post a 9-1 lead and needed just three Ahoskie outs to advance on to Kernersville as the Area-1 second seed.

Ahoskie couldn’t muster a rally, but they at least pushed across a second scoring effort in the contest. Wyatt Waterfield reached first base on an error. Waterfield then scored on an RBI double by Trey Futrell. Unfortunately, it would be Post-102’s final run of the summer. They could not muster another run and fell to the Colts by a 9-2 final.

Ahoskie was held to just five hits with Terry collecting two of those. Jones, Futrell, and A.J. Liverman had the other safeties for Post-102.

In the final game, Ahoskie used four pitchers. Cowan started and went 2-and-1/3^rd innings and was tagged with the hard-luck loss. Merritt, Liverman, and Waterfield also spent time on the hill for Post-102.

The game marked the first time Ahoskie advanced to the finals of the Area-1 playoffs; and their trio of wins was the most for any Ahoskie junior American Legion baseball team. Post-102 finished third in Area-1.

“We had a successful season,” said coach Brandon Matthews. “We battled thru injuries and the weather. We fought hard all summer and accomplished more this season than was expected from us.”

He added, “We’ve started a tradition and we hope to build on it in 2014.”

Ahoskie finished the season with a final mark of 15-11.