Junior Legion: WC North snaps Aycock's 12-game win streak

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on June 27, 2009 11:02 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Inning after inning Logan Wicks kept taking the ball.

And he waited patiently until his teammates gave him a lead.

Wicks threw a complete game and Wayne County North erupted for six, 10th-inning runs in an 8-2 over American Junior Legion rival Charles B. Aycock on Friday evening.

Aycock had its 12-game win streak snapped.

Hunter Newsome started the uprising with a lead-off single and Tyler Ware drew a walk. Greg Simms moved the runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt.

With two outs, Wesley Capps drew an intentional walk to load the bases. Aycock reliever Derek Limbaugh plunked Zach Beachum to push across the go-ahead run.

"When they got the bases loaded and then we hit that guy it kind of hurt us," said Aycock head coach Nelson Cunningham. "They wanted to get something done and they made it happen. Maybe we needed something like that (a loss) to wake us up a little bit."

Jake May and Wesley Stewart cranked out back-to-back, two-RBI singles and Benito Avila's RBI double capped the scoring. May finished 4-for-5 with two RBI. Newsome contributed three hits, while Wicks added two.

"We preach just trying to put the ball in play," said Wayne County North head coach Roger May. "I was tickled to death with the way we played today. I told our kids you've got to want to be in that situation and they stepped it up. That's a growing experience and that helps you mature as a baseball player."

Wicks permitted two earned runs on nine hits, struck out five and walked two. The right-hander threw 117 pitches and held Aycock scoreless after the first inning.

"He is just getting better every time he goes out on the mound," said coach May. "I told our kids it starts right there on the mound. If you keep your team in the ballgame because you're doing your job on the mound you've got a chance. He did a great job and gave us a chance."

Collin DuBose's RBI triple and Jordan Quinn's RBI groundout gave Aycock a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

Capps' solo homer cut the margin in half in the top of the second inning. Wayne North tied the game at 2-2 on Beachum's sac fly in the top of the sixth.

Aycock (16-3 overall) squandered a scoring opportunity with the bases loaded and one out in the second inning. Cunningham's team put two runners aboard in the seventh, but came up empty.

Overall, Aycock left 10 runners on base and stranded at least one runner in six of 10 innings.

"That Wicks kid pitched a heck of a ballgame," said Cunningham. "We didn't make the adjustments. I didn't think we hit a ball hard after the first inning. We let a good ball team hang around and they came out with a little more fire. The bottom line is they wanted it a little more than we did."

Cameron Taylor and Travis Musselman each had two hits for Aycock.

One night after a disappointing 14-3 loss at Wayne County South, Wayne North appeared to take a needed step in the right direction.

"One thing great about baseball is you've got another day," said May. "Logan pitched his tail off, and our kids fed off of it and did the little things better today."