The Wayne High baseball team is 2-0 for the first time since resurrecting the baseball program after an exciting 5-3 extra-inning affair over Thurston County Thursday in Pender.
The Blue Devils drew first blood in the top of the first when Jacob Kneifl walked and scored on Zane Jackson’s ground out to second, but Thurston County answered with a run in the second off a Wayne fielding error.
Thurston County scored two in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead, but Wayne answered in the fifth when Hagan Miller doubled down the left field line to score Brennen O’Reilly and Gunnar Jorgensen followed with an RBI single to score Victor Kniesche, who was on as a courtesy runner for Jackson.
Wayne had a chance to win the game in regulation when Jorgensen lashed a one-out double to right, but he was caught stealing third. Wayne had another chance in the eighth after Kaleb Anderson’s leadoff single, but they could not bring him home.
In the ninth, Wayne struck for two runs. O’Reilly reached on an error and scored on a single by Jackson, and they added an insurance run on a sacrifice fly by Trevor DeBoer, scoring Kniesche. Wayne’s defense set the Thunder down in the bottom of the ninth to secure the win.
Jorgensen was 4-for-5 to lead Wayne’s 12-hit attack, with O’Reilly and Miller adding two hits apiece. Jorgensen, Miller and O’Reilly each had doubles and Jackson had two runs batted in.
Kneifl picked up the win on the mound, striking out nine and allowing five hits in six innings of worked, with DeBoer working a scoreless ninth to get the save.
The Blue Devils are scheduled to play at Wahoo on Friday.
