PILOT MOUNTAIN — Surry Legion Post 123 kicked off its 2009 season Saturday, splitting a double-header with Eastern Randolph.

The first game of the day went to Surry, which rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the bottom of the sixth inning to pull out the win.

After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning behind a three-run homerun from Taylor Hull (North Surry), Eastern Randolph returned the favor by picking up five runs in the top of the fifth.

With a runner on second and two outs, Eastern Randolph’s Josh Tobias hit a deep fly to right field. Adam Jessup (Surry Community) misplayed the ball on what would have been the final out of the inning, allowing a run to score.

The error ignited the visitor’s bats, with Surry starter Daniel Shaeffer (home school) giving up four consecutive hits.

While Eastern Randolph plated five total runs against Shaeffer, none of those five counted as earned runs.

“He threw well,” Surry coach Barry Hall said of his starter. “We should have got out of that inning with nobody scoring. We misplayed a ball in the outfield then they dinked some hits in. It’s our first game of the year and he kept throwing strikes and battled even though we made some errors behind him. He kept us in the game.”

With the score still at 5-3 in favor of Eastern Randolph heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, Surry looked for a spark and found it in Jayson Murphy (East Surry).

Jacob Barnes lit the fire with a sacrifice bunt to move runners to second and third with one out after Adam Jessup was beaned and Taylor Hull was walked to start the inning.

Then with two outs Murphy stepped to the plate for his first at-bat of the game, knocking a game-tying two-run double.

Zac Chilton (East Surry) then slapped a single to right field to push Murphy home and put Surry up 6-5.

Hall said Murphy did what he was supposed to do, despite nearly making a costly error on the basepath following Chilton’s single.

“Murphy hits a fastball well and we just thought that he would give us a chance to drive in a run,” Hall said. “He ended up putting two good swings together and drilling the double, which was big.”

Christian Easter (Mount Airy) shut the door on Eastern Randolph in relief of Shaeffer for the final two innings to pick up the win for Surry.

Taylor Hull finished 1-for-2 with two runs, a homerun and three RBIs to lead Surry, followed by Murphy, who finished 1-for-1 with a run and two RBIs.

In the second game, Surry threw six different pitchers, with Austin McLamb (Surry Central) eventually getting tagged with the 5-4 loss.

Surry gave up two runs in the top of the seventh inning to allow Easter Randolph to come away with the win.

Surry’s next game will be Monday at 6 p.m. against West Forsyth in Pilot Mountain.

Game 1

Surry 6,

Eastern Randolph 5

E. Randolph 005 000 0 — 5 7 1

Surry 300 003x — 6 7 3

WP: Christian Easter; LP: Kelley

2B: S — Shane Johnson, Jayson Murphy, Troy Jessup

HR: S — Taylor Hull

E. Randolph 5,

Surry 4

E. Randolph 011 010 2 — 5 8 0

Surry 012 010 0 — 4 7 0