C.B. Aycock edges So. Wayne

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

• Print
• Email

PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock is headed in the right direction at the right time.

The Golden Falcons plated every run with two outs and slipped past county rival Southern Wayne 7-4 on Thursday evening. Aycock claimed its fourth straight victory and clinched the No. 2 seed for the season-ending Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference tournament.

Adron Hollowell's two-out infield single in the bottom of the first scored Connor Narron to give the Golden Falcons a 1-0 lead. Jonathan Taylor scored on a Saints error and Nicholas McGee added an RBI single giving Aycock a 3-0 advantage.

"We've just got to finish innings," said Saints head coach Trae McKee. "We had a couple of those hitters in 1-2 or 0-2 holes. We've just got to finish the job. You've got to weather that storm in the first inning and I thought we did that to a point."

Kevin Wise trimmed the deficit to 3-1 with a second-inning, solo home run.

Jordan Quinn's two-out RBI single to left field scored Taylor and a Southern Wayne error on the same play allowed pinch-runner Erik DuBose to score to give the Golden Falcons a 5-1 cushion.

Solo homers from Tyler Edwards and Scott Holloman in the top of the fifth pulled the Saints to within 5-3. Edwards and Holloman both finished with two hits and an RBI.

Southern Wayne (11-13 overall, 5-5 ECC) loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the sixth and managed to score just one run in the inning on Jordan Hood's sacrifice fly to slice the deficit to 5-4. Aycock reliever Jimmy Kearney relieved Hollowell and worked out of trouble.

"Kearney, what more can you say about him as a senior?" said Golden Falcons head coach Charles Davis. "He's played with us two years now in the program. He came in a tough situation right there and made some very good pitches."

Aycock (17-5, 7-3) tacked on a pair of sixth-inning insurance runs with Narron's two-out RBI single to right, while McGee was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. McGee (two RBI) and Hollowell (RBI) both had two hits.

"We extended at-bats and I thought we had some good at-bats in certain situations," said Davis. "Those runs were huge. It makes you breathe a sigh of relief."

The Saints threatened in the seventh with two runners on base with two outs, but couldn't capitalize. Southern Wayne left two runners on base in four different innings.

"We had the bases loaded with nobody out and only got one run," said McKee. "We had a couple of innings where we kind of didn't put any pressure on them."

The Golden Falcons earned a split against the Saints, who will play an opening-round, ECC tournament game next week.

"We went 5-0 the last half of the conference season," said Davis. "We were 2-3 (in the conference) at one point and I think a lot of people had written us off and the kids kept battling. We've just got to focus a little bit more every game and every day on our intensity."