Southern Wayne bounces back after tough defeat

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on April 23, 2010 1:46 PM

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DUDLEY -- Bouncing back from a difficult loss isn't nearly as easy as folding the tent and calling it quits.

It just feels a lot better.

Two days after losing 13-1 to North Lenoir, Southern Wayne rebounded with a 4-1 win over Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference foe South Johnston on Thursday night.

Sophomore Tyler Gainey earned the complete-game victory, and surrendered one run on eight hits. He fanned five Trojan batters and walked two.

Gainey struck out Matt Blackmon to escape a bases-loaded jam in the top of the first. The right-hander induced a double play to get out of trouble with runners on the corners and one out in the fourth inning.

The Trojans left eight runners on base, including six in the first four innings.

"We took one pretty bad on Tuesday night and I was glad to see us bounce back," said Southern Wayne head coach Trae McKee. "Tyler got himself into trouble and we turned some double plays that gave him some confidence. He was around the strike zone with three pitches and kept the ball down."

Ashton Cox's two-out, RBI single in the home half of the second inning gave the Saints a 1-0 lead. Cody Davis tacked on a solo homer in the bottom of the third. Davis finished 2 for 3 with an RBI.

"Pushing a couple runs across early was big," said McKee. "We've kind of been going on how it goes early in a game. If it goes well early, we kind of build on that and that was good to see."

Logan Jernigan's RBI single in the top of the fifth pulled South Johnston within 2-1.

The Saints (10-10 overall, 3-5 ECC) picked up a pair of runs on an error in the bottom of the fifth.

With the victory Southern Wayne moved into a tie with the Trojans (10-10, 3-5) for third place in the league. The Saints entertain Eastern Wayne on Tuesday.

"Every conference win is big," said McKee. "Every game in conference you better be ready to play. There's no easy games in this conference."