Falcons fall in key ECC contest

Published in Sports on May 10, 2005 1:54 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Could a team possibly be "too up" for a must-win game? That might have been the bane of the C.B. Aycock baseball team.

Visiting South Central registered a convincing 11-2 thrashing of the Golden Falcons on Monday night.

Neither head coach was willing to commit to anything concerning their standing in Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference play.

"There's nothing in this league that's locked up until it's over with," said South Central Coach Robert "Peanut" Langston.

The Falcons, who will wrap things up Wednesday night at West Cartaret, stand at 12-3 and in a first place tie. "There could be as many as five teams with four losses by the end of the week," Langston added.

Aycock's Charles Davis was equally noncommittal.

"We're not mathematically out of it," he said, "but some strange things have got to occur." The Golden Falcons, at 9-5 in the conference, travel to Eastern Wayne tonight.

It was a solid team win for South Central. Offensively, they scored at least one run in six of seven innings. Every starter had a hit. Defensively, they only committed one error, as well as picking up six innings of sparkling relief from Stephen Causey.

South Central wasted little time teeing off on Aycock starter Garrett Davis. He was greeted with three runs on three hits in the top of the first. That was really all they needed.

The Golden Falcons were never able to get outfielders Tyrell Worthington and Brandon Brown off the base paths. The duo reached base safely each time they batted. They combined for six hits, two of them doubles and a home run, and scored five times.

Aycock's two runs also came in the first inning. Outfielder Bradley Taylor led off the game with a homer over the left field fence. Shortstop Will Spence followed with a single also to left.

He went to third on two wild pitches. Third baseman Thomas Pilkington brought him home when he reached on an infield error. After that, Davis' club was only able to get one runner to third and two on second.

The Golden Falcons were not able to decipher the offerings of Causey. In six innings, he allowed only two hits, no runs, and struck out nine.

"I couldn't be more proud of a player," said Langston. "He's overcome some tremendous adversity and waited for his opportunity. It's also a tribute to our pitching coach Mark Karam, who worked tirelessly to get players like Causey to this point."

Davis was clearly disappointed by both the end result, as well as the overall journey that got his club there.

"Although South Central swung the bat well (14 hits), we just didn't play very good defense (5 errors) and make things happen," he said. "Give a team five or six outs in an inning, and they're going to get some hits and score some runs."