Aycock Juniors eliminated by Wilson

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on July 10, 2006 2:11 PM

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WILSON -- Road-weary and short-handed, Aycock's Junior Legion baseball team battled toe-to-toe with Wilson Post 13 for three innings Sunday afternoon.

But runners stranded in scoring position, some fatigue and untimely errors eventually took their toll as Wilson prevailed 11-1 on the Fike High School diamond. Post 13, the Area II regular-season champion, advanced to second-round play next Tuesday at Cary.

Aycock concluded the year 6-12.

Coach Allen Thomas' team started the double-elimination tournament with a nine-run victory over top-seeded Wilson on Saturday. They endured a heart-breaking 4-3 defeat at Clayton later in the day and returned to face Wilson with just nine players in uniform.

"It was a lot of road time," said Thomas. "Personally, I didn't like the (tournament) set-up, but you've got to do what you're told to do. We're not the only ones who were in that situation, unless you had home field advantage.

"We've been undermanned all season. We had a lot of guys playing out of position today, but, overall, our guys came out and gave it their all. That's all you can ask for."

Aycock collected five hits against Post 13 right-hander Jeremy Efird, who earned the complete-game win. Evan Medford and Nick McGee each provided two singles, while Jay Rose ended the day 1-for-3.

Rose tallied Aycock's lone run in the first inning when Jordan Carr safely reached first on an infield error.

Aycock wouldn't scratch again. Thomas' squad left the bases loaded in the second inning and stranded 10 runners overall in the six-inning affair.

"We had the bases loaded with the heart of our lineup coming up and we hit the ball hard," said Thomas, whose team had three, two-out rallies stopped in a three-inning span. "We could have scored two if we had a hit right there and who knows, it could have been a different ball game.

"We had our chances to stay right there in it."

Wilson (20-7) answered the first-inning challenge, and parlayed three hits and one balk into a 2-1 lead. Aycock right-hander Jordan Quinn threw two consecutive shutout innings before yielding three runs (two earned) in the fourth.

Post 13 pushed nine runs across in a three-inning stretch and ended the game in sixth by the 10-run mercy rule. Starters Jerome Richardson, Zac Moore, Chris Lamm and Alex Howard each provided two hits in Wilson's 12-hit attack.

"Jordan pitched well for us and kept us in it for a while," said Thomas. "He's certainly not going to overpower you and is going to hit his spots, which is how he has to pitch.

"We made some mistakes behind him and that's what is going to happen when you've got guys playing out of position. They just capitalized on our mistakes."

2006 Area II

Junior American Legion

Tournament

(at Fike HS, Wilson)

Elimination game

Aycock 100 000 -- 1 5 5

Wilson 200 324 -- 11 12 2

No outs when game-ending run scored.

Leading hitters -- Aycock -- Evan Medford 2-4; Jay Rose 1-3; Nick McGee 2-3. Wilson -- Jerome Richardson 2-3, RBI; Zac Moore 2-4, 2B; Jacob Davis 1-4, RBI; Chris Lamm 2-2, 2B, RBI; Alex Howard 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI.

IP H R ER BB SO

Aycock

Quinn (L) 5 7 7 5 3 2

Gurganus 1 5 4 2 0 0

Wilson

Efird (W) 6 5 1 0 4 1

WP -- Efird, Quinn. BK -- Quinn. HBP -- Pittman (by Quinn).