VANCEBORO – The Ahoskie Post 102 American Legion senior baseball team took a page from their junior brethren with an eight­run explosion in their game and scored a 16­5 win over West Craven Post 539 here Wednesday night.

The game – which broke a three game losing streak for Post 102 – was close through the first three innings before Ahoskie broke open a tight 2­1 contest.

West Craven opened the scoring with a run in the bottom of the first and held a 1­0 lead after one complete inning of baseball.

Ahoskie broke through with a pair of runs in the top of the third inning. Matthew Weaver doubled and went to third on a D.J. Smith single to put runners on the corners. Weaver scored the first run on a wild pitch. Meanwhile, Michael Scott singled to move Smith to third, where he was held up. Coach Chris Towell then called for the double­steal and Smith stole home to score while Scott was safe at second. Ahoskie was up 2­1 after three innings.

Post 102’s eight runs came in the top of the fourth. Jarrett Harrell walked and stole second. Tommy Cowan then reached first base on an error, and later Harrell scored on a Logan Jackson RBI single. Parker Cline followed with a single to load the bases. Chris Wilkins then got an RBI on a bases­loaded walk to score Jackson with Cowan following Jackson later across the plate on a wild pitch. Smith then had the inning’s second bases­loaded walk, followed by a two­run double by Tyler Jones. Back to the top of the order, Harrell collected an RBI single followed by a run scoring base­hit off the bat of Tommy Cowan. When Post 539 failed to answer, Ahoskie had pushed out to a 10­1 lead after four innings.

Post 102 added another run in the top of the fifth when Weaver singled, stole second, and scored on Jones RBI groundout. That upped Ahoskie’s margin to 11­1 after five.

One more run came for the road team when Post 102 got a run in the top of the sixth on an RBI single by Weaver. West Craven did get a run back in the bottom of the frame and trailed Ahoskie by ten runs, 12­2, after six complete.

Post 102 got its final four runs in the top of the seventh when Jones singled and Harrell walked. Slade Cowan then brought both runners home with a two­run double. Nick Bonanno followed to reach first base on an error to put runners on the corners. They didn’t stay there as both Cowan and Bonanno scored on back­to­back wild pitches for a 16­2 Ahoskie lead.

West Craven scored three more runs in the bottom of the seventh, not hardly enough as Post 102 claimed the 11­run conference win.

Cline pitched six innings and got the win while Harrell came on in relief to pitch the seventh.

Ahoskie had 16 hits, three off the bat of Weaver, while Jones, Jackson, Cline, and Tommy Cowan had two hits apiece. Smith, Scott, Harrell, Nathan Rowe, and Slade Cowan had one hit each.

“This was a great win for us,” said Towell. “Parker pitched great and he threw strikes. We made defensive plays and we hit the baseball.”

Ahoskie ups its overall record to 3­5 and 2­3 in conference. Post 102 plays a doubleheader at Wilson Post 13 on Saturday before returning home to Hertford County High Field Sunday at 5 p.m. to host Wayne County Post 11.