Aycock Junior Legion trips up Garner, moves on in tourney

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on July 16, 2004 1:55 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Brandon Toler collected the game-winning RBI and Brandon Price threw a complete game as Aycock tripped Garner 4-3 in an American Junior Legion Area I inter-conference playoff game Thursday at Charles B. Aycock.

Price, a 6-foot-2 right-hander, scattered six hits and fanned five Garner batters. A rising sophomore at C.B. Aycock, Price yielded one walk and that runner was erased on a double play.

Garner had one hit, a two-out single in the seventh, in the final three innings combined.

"He got stronger as the game went along," Aycock coach Ed Spence said. "He was the key (to the win)."

Aycock trailed 2-0 after 2 1/2 innings, but rallied in the third.

Cortez Gilbert rapped a lead-off single and moved to second when the Garner pitcher walked Jackson Massey. Will Spence pushed a bunt toward the second-base hole that no one fielded, which loaded the bases.

Chris King drew a bases-loaded walk to trim Garner's advantage in half. After a strikeout, Bennett Jeffreys hit a ground ball to short, but the Garner defense failed to turn the double play. Massey scored for the 2-2 tie.

Casey Cole, Jeffreys' pinch runner, scrambled to second on an errant pick-off throw. Bradley Taylor plated Spence to make it 3-2.

Toler perfectly executed a hit-and-run play and Cole scored easily as Toler's double bounced over the fence. It was Toler's only hit in three plate appearances.

"But that was the extent of our offense for the game," Spence said.

Gilbert paced Aycock's offense with two hits in three at-bats. Massey batted 1-for-1 and scored twice.

Aycock (17-4) faces Area I East foe Snow Hill at 7 p.m. Saturday. The winner advances to the Eastern N.C. Junior American Legion tournament next Wednesday at the Eastern Carolina Athletic Park.

The loser faces either Garner or Clayton at 7 p.m. Sunday.