C.B. Aycock rallies past Fike

By Rob Craig
Published in Sports on May 23, 2007 1:47 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- With Charles B. Aycock and Wilson Fike locked in a 3-3 game in the sixth inning, Charles Davis turned to his bench and Evan Medford.

The starting center fielder was hit for by designated hitter Brandon Price for the first five innings, but coach Davis had a feeling about Medford's left-handed bat.

With Joseph Toler standing on third and two outs, Medford would make his coach look like a genius as he hit a high chopper up the middle that forced Fike second baseman Michael McLawhorn to field the ball on the edge of the outfield grass for an RBI single.

The hit would ignite a four-run inning to lift the Golden Falcons to a 7-3 win over the Demons in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A eastern semifinals on Tuesday night.

"I told Evan before he got up there that I believe in him and he put the ball in play and beat it out," said coach Davis. "Things just started to go from there."

Following Medford's clutch hit, Will Edgerton had another infield single. Both he and Medford then stole second and third respectively to set the table for Bradley Taylor.

Taylor -- who already had a huge two-run homer in the game -- then came up with another big hit as he singled home the two runners. Garrett Davis would next add his own RBI single to put the game away from Aycock.

"One hit after another," said Taylor. "The hitting became contagious."

Davis took the mound for his seventh inning of work and quickly retired the Fike batters 1-2-3 on eight pitches to end the game.

Davis (8-1) allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits, walked two and struck out six in his complete game win.

"Garrett wanted (to stay in)," said coach Davis. "You can't look to the next round unless you win this game. I'll worry about that tomorrow.

"I want to enjoy this today."

The night didn't look as if it would be enjoyable for Aycock early on.

Fike jumped out to a 1-0 first-inning lead when a ground ball shot between the legs of third baseman Thomas Pilkington allowing Michael Brown to score from second base.

The lead would grow to 3-0 in the third inning when consecutive hits by Thomas Moore, Jacob Davis and Zac Crumpler push two runs across.

It was thanks to a big inning-ending double play that the damage wasn't more severe.

"If we had been doing what we needed to be doing, they wouldn't have scored those two runs," said coach Davis. "When a high school hitter knows what pitch is coming he makes contact. But we got that straightened out."

Davis -- who had allowed five hits through the first three innings -- and his teammates made the necessary adjustments the rest of the way as the Fike batters would go hitless the rest of the night.

"From then on he was lights out," said coach Davis.

Aycock though, was still looking at a 3-0 deficit until Taylor stepped in with a runner on and crushed a Bentley Massey pitch deep over the center field wall for a two-run homer.

The home run sent the capacity Aycock crowd into a frenzy and re-energized his teammates.

"I had a bad at-bat my first time up so I just made the adjustment," said Taylor. "I got ahead and he threw me a fastball and I hit it. It got us going."

Aycock would later tie the game on an RBI groundout by Pilkington in the bottom of the fourth.

Aycock (27-3) -- winners of 22 straight -- now advances to the Thursday's best-of-three regional finals against Northern Nash.

"We get to live on for another day," said coach Davis. "We did the things we needed to do to win."

Wilson Fike 102 000 0 -- 3 5 3

C.B. Aycock 002 104 0 -- 7 7 3

Leading Hitters -- Wilson Fike -- Jacob Davis 1-3, RBI, R; Zac Crumpler 1-3, RBI. C.B. Aycock -- Bradley Taylor 2-4, HR, 4 RBI, 2 R; Garrett Davis 2-3, RBI; Evan Medford 1-1, RBI, R; Will Edgerton 1-4, R; Jay Rose 1-3, R.

DP -- C.B. Aycock 1. LOB -- Wilson Fike 5, C.B. Aycock 6. SB -- Hill 2, Strouse, Edgerton, Medford. S -- Gibbons, Toler, Narron.

IP H R ER BB SO

Wilson Fike

Massey 5 3 3 2 4 4

Price (L, 3-1) 1 4 4 0 0 0

C.B. Aycock

Davis (W, 8-1) 7 5 3 2 2 6

WP -- Massey.