Aycock scores early, rolls to victory

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on June 10, 2011 1:47 PM

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Put pressure on the defense and be aggressive on the basepaths.

Charles B. Aycock put the ball in play, took advantage of errors and put runners in motion throughout a 17-3 mercy-rule shortened Junior American Legion win at Wayne West on Thursday.

The Golden Falcons' Adam Pate led off the ball game by reaching on an error. Pate stole second and third base and later scored on a wild pitch. Garrett Joyner reached on a walk and came around to score on a passed ball. Gregory Johnson added a three-run double. Back-to-back RBI singles from Logan Brown and Tim Naughton capped the eight-run first inning.

"We scored two runs in the first without getting a hit there," said Aycock head coach Nelson Cunningham. "We took advantage of some base runners. We got some good leads on the bases and took advantage of some passed balls. We extended the inning and when you go out with an 8-0 lead it makes it nice on your pitcher."

Khalil Warren's RBI ground out in the bottom of the first cut the lead to 8-1.

Brown scored as part of a double-steal in the top of the third inning to stretch the margin to 9-1. Pate tacked on an RBI single and later scored on a wild pitch. Joyner scored on an error and Hunter Jones' three-run triple pushed the lead to 15-1.

Justin Barbour and Rider Gardner led the Golden Falcons' with two hits each. Aycock took advantage of four Wayne West errors.

Aycock added two runs on Jordan Lee's RBI ground out and Gardner's RBI double.

Wayne West got two runs back in the bottom of the fourth. Jonathan Cherry provided an RBI single and John Winslow was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Winslow finished with two hits and an RBI.

"Aycock has a good ball team," said Wayne West head coach Barry Bradley. "They're much older than we are. We've got some young kids learning some things. This is our first year and we're trying to get the swing of things. We closed in down in the later innings and pitched well at the end of the game. We just didn't do much at the plate."

Johnson earned the win on the mound for the Golden Falcons.

Aycock visits Wayne North on Monday.