AHOSKIE – As the late John Denver used to sing, “Hey it’s good to be back home again.”

After a pair of rain postponements and the moving of one game from home-base Hertford County High School to Ridgecroft School to accommodate the schedule, Ahoskie Post-102’s Junior American Legion team finally got to play a home game for the first time since late May.

Unfortunately, the numbers on the scoreboard weren’t in the home team’s favor, but the game will still go down on the books officially as a win for Post-102 because of an ineligible player used by visiting Williamston Post-163.

“We were a little tired,” said coach Wayne Hill, whose team has played five of their last six games on the road. “We need some practice because we’ve got boys from all over everywhere and we’ve got to get ’em together and get some practice time so they can start competing together good as a team.

“It’s been three weeks since we played at home,” he added, “and we haven’t had a practice in those three weeks.”

Maybe the rustiness showed as pitcher Jacob Rose surrendered a pair of runs on a pair of hits in the first inning that staked Williamston to a 2-0 lead after a half-inning of play.

But back came Ahoskie in the bottom of the frame as Chris Rogerson drew a walk, stole second, and two outs later scored on a double by Scott Edge to half the deficit and make it 2-1 following the first inning of play.

Williamston came back in the next two innings to put to seven runs – six in the third inning as they sent 12 men to the plate. They also took advantage of a pair of Ahoskie errors in that inning to set up two of their runs.

Hill made a pitching change to Marvin Harrell, but the Williamston barrage continued and after three full innings, Ahoskie trailed, 9-1.

Williamston pitcher Keith Rogerson settled down after his first inning of work and went on to finish with eight strikeouts while giving up just three hits in four full innings of work.

The game was called briefly after four and a half innings of play with Williamston ahead, 12-1, due to lightning on the horizon over the field; but after a 30-minute waiting period the umpires declared the contest done.

The win, by forfeit, made Ahoskie’s record on the year 3-and-3.

Edge finished 2-for-2 with the only Ahoskie run driven in during the rain-shortened contest while Simon Hoggard had the other safety for Post-102.

“He (Rogerson) threw it pretty well for us tonight,” said Williamston coach Hank Tice, “and we hit the ball probably as well as we’ve hit it all summer.

“We’ve got some kids playing in the State Games (in Raleigh) next week,” he added, “so we’ll take a week off and come back and try to finish strong.”

“What we need is practice, said Hill, “and if we get some tomorrow morning, we’ll have a better showing against Tarboro.”