AHOSKIE – Ahoskie Post 102 beat Elizabeth City Post 84 Thursday in a Senior American Legion contest.

The contest, which was the conference opener for Ahoskie, saw Post 102 claim a 3-2 win thanks to a combined four-hitter by Tyler Burden and Billy Nixon.

Ahoskie opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the first frame.

Burden walked and stole second before Daniel Merritt reached on a base on balls. Burden raced home on a Clay Robbins RBI-single.

Ryan Williams then walked to load the bases. Nixon then had an RBI-groundout that scored Merritt and gave Ahoskie a 2-0 lead.

Elizabeth City scored a run in the top of the second and another in the top of the fifth to tie the game at 2-all.

Ahoskie then scored the game-winning run in the  bottom of the fifth inning.

With one out, Timmy Whitlow singled and went to second on a Burden single. Marvin Harrell walked to load the bases. Whitlow then came home on a Merritt sacrifice fly as Ahoskie took the 3-2 lead and held on for the win.

Burden pitched five innings for the win, allowing two runs on three hits. He struck out seven. Nixon tossed the final four innings, allowing no runs and one hit. He struck out nine.

Ahoskie had six hits, led by Burden’s pair.

“Our pitching was great and our defense was good,” Post 102 coach David Ellis said. “This was a good win to start conference play.”

Ahoskie improved to 1-4 overall with the victory. They play at Rocky Mount tonight (Thursday) at 7 p.m.