C.B. Aycock tops Wayne North junior legion

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on June 30, 2009 1:46 PM

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C.B. Aycock manufactured seven runs off eight hits in its 7-2 victory over Wayne County North in American Junior Legion action Monday evening.

Bryant Stafford shrugged off some early control issues and tossed five innings of three-hit ball. Aycock avenged a 10-inning loss to North just four days ago.

"It feels good to come back and get a win," said Aycock head coach Nelson Cunningham said. "We did enough to get a win tonight and I am never going to overlook that. But there are still some things we need to work on."

Aycock jumped in front during the first inning.

Tyler Farmer led off the game with a double and scored two batters later on Jonathan Taylor's groundout. Jordan Quinn reached on an error and Tyler Ruffin capped the outburst with a two-run homer over the center field fence.

"We didn't make the big play defensively in the first inning and it cost us," said WC North head coach Roger May. "You never know how much a couple early runs can change the momentum."

North got back in the game in the bottom of the second inning.

Tyler Ware drew a one-out walk and moved to second when Zack Beachum reached on an error. Hunter Newsome plated Ware with an RBI double and Benito Avila walked to load the bases. Greg Simms watched ball four in his at-bat and plated Eastern Wayne's second run.

Stafford, who threw 50 pitches in the first two innings, settled down.

"I looked him in the eye and told him that he had to give me a couple more innings or we would be hurting," said Cunningham. "Playing almost every day has been hard on our pitching and we had to get a good outing."

C.B. Aycock added three runs in the top of the fourth.

Jeff Carmel drew a one-out walk and advanced on Collin DuBose's single. Cameron Taylor drew a walk to load the bases. Farmer delivered a base hit that skipped past an oncoming North outfielder and rolled to the fence.

All three runners scored on the play.

"That was a big two-out hit," said Cunningham. "Eastern Wayne has a scrappy bunch and we needed to score those runs to give ourselves some breathing room."

Aycock (17-3 overall) travels to Northern Nash tonight at 6 p.m. The game time was changed to accommodate a Senior Legion playoff contest. Eastern Wayne (9-7) plays host to Benson tonight at 7 p.m.