Limbaugh shines for C.B. Aycock

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on April 14, 2010 1:46 PM

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DUDLEY -- Derek Limbaugh has worked his entire high school career for moments like these.

Now that he's earned his opportunity the junior right-hander is making the most of it.

Limbaugh took a shutout into the seventh inning and earned the win on the mound in Charles B. Aycock's 6-2 Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference victory at Southern Wayne on Tuesday night.

Limbaugh allowed just one hit through the first five innings and at one point set down 10 Saints in a row. He kept his pitch count down all night before leaving with the bases loaded an nobody out in the home half of the seventh inning.

Adron Hollowell recorded the final three outs in relief.

"Going into the seventh inning he had thrown 64 pitches and that's huge," Golden Falcons head coach Charles Davis said. "Derek's arm is to the point where he can throw and throw and throw. Any time you have the pitch count down in a high school game in the 60's going into the seventh inning it means your pitcher is throwing strikes and your defense is playing behind him."

Limbaugh allowed two earned runs on four hits with four strikeouts and one walk. A reliever for most of last season, Limbaugh has been reliable since being added to the starting rotation.

"Derek's done a great job in his last two outings," Davis said. "He has really worked hard to get to this point. I couldn't ask for anything more out of him. He's worked hard since he was a freshman and I'm proud of him. The defense played great behind him."

Tyler Ruffin's solo home run and Nicholas McGee's RBI double off Southern Wayne starting pitcher Will Broadwell gave Aycock a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth.

Travis Musselman led off the top of the fifth inning with a double to left field and Tyler Farmer followed with a walk. Connor Narron gave the Golden Falcons some breathing room with a three run homer to right field.

"I thought we were a little too anxious early on with some of our at-bats," Davis said. "I thought Broadwell did a good job early on keeping us off balance. Later on when he did make a mistake I thought we did a good job of hitting the baseball."

Narron scored on Ruffin's fielder's choice in the top of the seventh.

The Saints loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the seventh and Taylor Gainey drew a bases loaded walk. Southern Wayne added a run on Ashton Cox's ground out.

All four of the runners the Saints (8-8, 1-4 ECC) left on base were stranded in scoring position.

"Derek did a really good job on the mound" Southern Wayne head coach Trae McKee said. "I thought we had a runner at second base with no outs in the bottom of the second and we don't even move him. We need some positive things to get us excited. Little things like that we've got to do better on and we will do better on."

Aycock (16-1) completed the first half of ECC play at 5-0 and visits Northern Nash today while the Saints play host to West Craven.