ECC co-champ Aycock knocks out S. Brunswick

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on May 18, 2011 1:47 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- It took a while for Charles B. Aycock to get its offense going Tuesday.

It finally broke loose in one inning.

The Golden Falcons plated seven runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and bested South Brunswick 9-0 in the opening round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 3-A softball playoffs on Tuesday night.

"I don't think we were necessarily ready to play from the opening pitch," said Golden Falcons head coach Brad Matthews. "We spent a couple of innings getting into the flow of the game, but then we got a home run to kind of wake everyone up and we started hitting."

Rachel Jordan opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo blast over the left field fence. Reagan Herndon followed with a single and later scored on a double by Ivy Hartzell to make it 2-0.

The home team opened the floodgates one inning later.

Brooke Bell belted a one-out single and Meredith Burroughs walked. Jordan reached on a single that plated Bell and Herndon followed with a fielder's choice. Connor Davis plated a run with a single and Ashley Shingleton added an RBI base hit.

Hartzell stepped back into the batter's box and took all remaining doubt out of the game with a grand slam that pushed the score to 9-0.

"Ivy hit a big shot right there to kind of cap what was a very good inning," said Matthews.

The run support was more than enough for Bell, who held the South Brunswick offense to just two hits in a complete-game performance. Bell tallied 11 strikeouts en route to the win in the pitcher's circle.

"Brooke hit her spots consistently and that is all I can ask this time of year," said Matthews. "She pitched around a couple of hits and a couple of walks, and didn't allow anything to get away from her."

C.B. Aycock travel to Wilson Hunt on Friday.