Ethan Willard (Bob Sutton / Randolph Record)
RAMSEUR – Ethan Willard arrived to play with Randolph County Post 45 and Carter Brown is back with the American Legion team.
That combination proved big for Post 45 in its first intra-county matchup of the season Wednesday night.
Willard belted the game’s first pitch for a home run. After a walk to Jake Riddle, Brown smacked a two-run home run.
Those were the key hits to go with six innings of pitching from Braxton Walker in a 5-2 victory against Liberty Post 81 at Eastern Randolph.
Willard finished his high school career in May with Trinity, hitting on one home run as a sophomore and another as a junior, but none this year.
“I can run into one here and there,” he said.
He wasted no time against Post 81 starter Lucas Smith.
“Never the first pitch, never the lead-off spot,” he said of his occasional power displays. “Pretty cool. That was pretty decent.”
Moments later, it was Brown’s turn in his third game of the season.
Brown played for Post 45 in 2023. After last year’s high school state championships, he needed time off to recover from a quad injury. So he sat out the summer season, though he showed up to watch a Post 81-vs.-Post 45 matchup.
This time, he impacted the outcome.
“I kind of muscled it,” Brown said of the homer. “I didn’t get as much of the barrel as I’d like, but it still got out. It was good to see it go out.”
Brown, a key part of two Class 1A state championships for Uwharrie Charter Academy, spent the past year at Brunswick Community College, where he took a redshirt season.
“He’s a big guy,” Post 45 manager Ronnie Pugh said. “We’re real happy to have him back.”
Brown said he wasn’t sure about his summer baseball plans until recently when landing a job didn’t pan out.
“I needed to play,” he said. “Might as well play a little bit of ball and get better.”
It had been about a full year since he played in a game that counted, helping UCA in the state finals. He participated in intra-squad games with Brunswick CC.
“Since the state championship my senior year,” he said of the time lapse. “I’ve seen live pitching, but not a legit game. All them intra squads in college definitely helped and facing good arms in college. Coming back to this, I feel like I’m seeing the ball well. Taking everything I learned from there and bringing it out here.”
Willard’s roster spot with Post 45 (3-2) comes after playing for High Point Post 87 in the past. He said competing in a high school conference with all Randolph County schools had him more in tune with many of the Post 45 players.
“I just wanted a little bit of a change,” the Pfeiffer-bound shortstop said. “I thought this would be people I know. I know these guys better than the High Point guys.”
Willard, who made one of the defensive highlights with a catch in shallow left field on Noah Lester’s batted ball, and Brown each had two hits.
Post 81 scored on Eli Holland’s fourth-inning double and on Holland’s sixth-inning home run.
Walker held Liberty to three hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Elijah Prince struck out three batters in the seventh.
“We need to get a win and kind of break the ice,” said Liberty manager Nate Cockman, whose team is winless in six outings. “We haven’t put the same lineup out there, though that’s not unusual for Legion ball.”
Smith, in his first outing of the season for Post 81, lasted five innings. Overall, it was a good step for Post 81.
“It was a lot better than the last four games,” Cockman said.
Because of adjustments in the Area 3 divisional alignments, teams will meet just twice in league play. Post 45 and Post 81 have another non-league meeting Sunday night at McCrary Park in Asheboro. They’ll meet in league play in a few weeks.
