Eastern Wayne tops C.B. Aycock 6-0

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on March 31, 2009 1:46 PM

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Eastern Wayne pitcher Josh Frederick didn't just hold the Charles B. Aycock offense in check Monday evening.

He made it nearly nonexistent.

A left-hander, Frederick allowed just one hit with seven strikeouts in five scoreless evenings during the state-ranked Warriors' 6-0 victory over their county archrival at New Hope.

Frederick mixed his pitches to keep Aycock batters guessing in the box, worked down in the strike zone and avoided second-inning trouble. He ended a Golden Falcons' rally with three consecutive strikeouts.

"Josh threw the ball extremely well," said Eastern Wayne head coach Jabo Fulghum. "He got ahead of his hitters for the most part and when he didn't, he was able to come back with something off speed.

"He kept the ball down today, and being that we have four games this week I didn't want his pitch count to get too high. I was proud of him."

The Golden Falcons batted 2-for-23 at the plate with 10 strikeouts. They failed to record a hit in five of seven innings.

"Eastern Wayne did what they had to do tonight to win," said Aycock head coach Charles Davis. "I don't know if we weren't ready to play tonight or what. Frederick is a good pitcher and my hat's off to him. We didn't have very good plate discipline."

John Wooten's solo home run to left field in the bottom of the first off Golden Falcons' starter Eric DuBose gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead.

"When John hit that ball it set the tone a little bit," said Fulghum.

Colton Fulghum was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second to score Zach Beachem and extend the margin to 2-0.

Jose Ponce's two-run, fifth-inning homer extended the Warriors' advantage to 4-0. DuBose allowed four earned runs on nine hits with three walks and a strikeout over five innings.

"Eric made two mistake pitches," said Davis. "The one he made to Wooten, John's going to make you pay for a mistake like that. The other one to Ponce, he was having trouble right there at the end getting the curveball over and good hitters if they see three or four fastballs in a row (a home run) is what's going to happen.

"Overall, I thought he was pretty good."

Aycock (8-2 overall) threatened in the top of the sixth against Wooten, who replaced Frederick on the mound. The Golden Falcons had runners on the corners with just one out before Wooten struck out Jonathan Taylor and former Eastern Wayne standout Adron Hollowell to end the inning.

Wooten allowed one hit and struck out three in two scoreless innings of relief.

Cambric Moye and Frederick each drew bases-loaded walks in the bottom of the sixth to cap Eastern Wayne's scoring.

Colton Fulghum, Ponce and Beachem each recorded two hits for a Warriors offense that extended counts and was patient at the plate.

"We did a good job with two strikes," said coach Fulghum. "We got behind and then we worked it back to 2-2 and 3-2, and we were patient at the plate today for the most part. I was pleased with that."

Aycock fell to 2-2 in Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference play and looks to bounce back today at conference foe Southern Wayne.

"Every conference game is big," said Davis. "When you only have 10 conference games, every conference game is big. We've got our backs against the wall a little bit at 2-2, and we worry so much about that. We just have to go out and play better."

Eastern Wayne (10-0, 4-0 ECC) travels to Kinston today.