AHOSKIE – Post 43 scored the winning run in the top of the 12th inning on a sacrifice fly as Kinston beat Ahoskie Post 102, 9-8, in senior American Legion baseball action here Thursday night.

The game was scoreless through the first two innings before Kinston broke through with the game’s first run in the top of the third.

But Post 102 bounced back and put up three in their half of the frame. Matthew Weaver singled, stole second and third base and came home on D.J. Smith’s RBI single. Smith would score later on Michael Scott’s RBI triple to right field and Scott scored on a Tyler Jones RBI single to right. Ahoskie led it 3-1 after the first three innings.

Kinston re-took the lead when Post 43 pushed across three runs of their own in the top of the fifth for a 5-4 margin.

Ahoskie tied the game with a run in the bottom of inning-five. Weaver got a base-hit, and stole second base. He later went to third on a Smith single and came home on a wild pitch. The game was all-square at 4-4 after five.

Kinston came back and chased Ahoskie starting pitcher Parker Cline in the sixth with three runs, then they added one more in the top of the eighth to double up Post 102 after seven-and-a-half, 8-4.

Ahoskie got a run back in the bottom of the eighth. Walks to Jones and Cline were sandwiched between a Chuck Lee base hit to stack the sacks, and Jones scored on a Tommy Cowan bases-loaded walk. However, a strikeout ended the threat and Kinston’s lead after eight innings was 8-5.

Down to their last three outs, Ahoskie would tie the same a third time with three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Weaver walked, stole second, and scored on a Scott RBI single to right field. Scott stole second followed by a walk issued to Lee. Both moved up one base on a wild pitch, and both later crossed the plate on Cline’s two-run single to left. Cline took second on the throw home and Nick Horvath was hit by a pitch to get two men on. But Ahoskie couldn’t complete the comeback as a fly-out ended the inning, sending it to overtime tied at 8-8.

In the bottom of the 11th it looked like Ahoskie might pull it out when Lee got a two-out single to center, Cline walked, and Horvath got a base hit to load the bases. But the threat ended with a strikeout and it was on to the 12th inning still tied.

Kinston then manufactured the game-winner on the sacrifice and then held Post 102 off the board in the bottom of the frame for the win.

Cline, Slade Cowan, and Jones pitched for Ahoskie with Jones getting tagged with the hard-luck loss. Post 102 managed 11 hits: Smith, Scott, Lee and Weaver with two hits each and one each from Jones, Cline, and Horvath.

Ahoskie finishes their regular season at 8-9 and 7-7 in league play. However, they won’t know if they’ll be seeded fourth or fifth because Kinston still has games remaining. Still, the Area-One senior playoffs between these same two teams will begin Tuesday night at the ballpark of the higher seed on back-to-back nights in a best-of-three first-round series.