Golden Falcons notch key ECC baseball road win

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on March 20, 2013 1:46 PM

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Road wins in the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference can be awfully hard to come by.

Building an early lead for a veteran pitcher can make earning those victories a bit easier.

Charles B. Aycock jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning on its way to a 12-2 win in six innings on Tuesday evening at Eastern Wayne.

Brothers Jacob (three RBI) and Tim Naughton both collected three hits for the Golden Falcons.

Senior right-hander Adam Pate took a no-hitter into the fourth inning and earned the win on the mound. Pate allowed two unearned runs on two hits and struck out seven without surrendering a walk in five innings of work.

Garrett Joyner scored on a double play and Jacob Naughton provided an RBI single to give Aycock a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Two more runs scored when Warriors' center fielder Ryan Kelly and left fielder Grayson Wells collided while chasing down Gregory Johnson's fly ball. Wells was down on the field for several minutes and was taken off in an ambulance.

Following the game, Eastern Wayne head coach Jabo Fulghum described Wells as "alert" following the collision. Fulghum added that Wells appeared to sustain an injury to his mouth.

Back-to-back two-run doubles from Tim Naughton and Johnson highlighted the Golden Falcons' six-run second inning. Aycock (7-2, 4-1 ECC) sent 19 batters to the plate in the first two innings.

"I thought we continued to react and play the game (after the delay)," Aycock head coach Charles Davis said. "I thought a key was we kept pressure on them the first couple of innings and we had some very good at-bats the first couple of innings."

Jacob Naughton tacked on an RBI double in the top of the third inning.

The Warriors (2-5 overall, 1-3 ECC) scored in the bottom of the fourth inning on run-scoring groundouts by Justin Lee and Tyler Warren. Eastern Wayne tallied just two hits and had just five base runners.

Coy Barnett endured the loss on the mound and surrendered four runs (two earned) on four hits in 2/3 innings of work.

"Until we can learn how to compete, it's going to be a long year," Fulghum said. "We've got to compete on the field. We don't have that killer instinct right now."

Alex Burke's sacrifice fly accounted for the Golden Falcons' final run in the top of the sixth inning.

The win keeps Aycock (7-2, 4-1) just a game back of league-leading South Johnston.

"Any time you can win on the road in this conference it's good," Davis said. "Our league is so evenly balanced this year that any conference game you can win, especially on the road is huge."

The Warriors visit J.H. Rose today while the Golden Falcons entertain Wilson Hunt on Thursday.