Triton's McLamb no-hits C.B. Aycock

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 29, 2013 1:47 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock started the second half of Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference play in uncharacteristic fashion on Thursday evening.

Brett McLamb threw a five-inning no-hitter and Triton handed the Golden Falcons an embarrassing, 13-0 mercy-rule defeat at Charles Davis Field. The loss snapped Aycock's six-game win streak and dropped it back into second place one-half game behind South Johnston in ECC play.

"A good, old-fashioned taken behind the shed butt-whuppin' tonight," CBA head coach Charles Davis said. "It's a conference game, which is the bad thing about it. What upsets me the most is not coming ready to play and all I ask them to do every day is be focused, come out and compete ... play every pitch which we didn't do tonight.

"I hope it's a wake-up call.

McLamb threw just 37 strikes during his 69-pitch outing and shut down an Aycock offense that owned a league-leading .348 batting average. The Golden Falcons suffered their third shutout loss against an ECC opponent during the last two seasons.

A sophomore right-hander, McLamb lost his perfect-game bid in the fourth inning when lead-off batter Garrett Joyner reached on an infield error. Senior Adam Pate drew a four-pitch walk one out later, but both runners were left stranded.

McLamb threw a perfect fifth and gave the Hawks their first-ever win in eight tries against the Golden Falcons.

"I've got to give the credit to my coach (Joey Miriello) calling the right pitches at the right time," McLamb said. "We kept them off-balance by throwing curveballs in the middle of the count and late in the count, and also bringing the fastball when they least expected it early in the count.

"I also mixed in my change-up between all those pitches."

Aycock's pitchers weren't quite as effective.

Senior southpaw Greg Johnson, who started, toiled through a 31-pitch first inning and surrendered four runs (two earned) on three hits, two walks and an infield error.

Johnson departed in the third inning and eventually suffered his first mound loss in five appearances this season. Ryan Grant, Logan Runyon and Ben Rouse provided 22/3 innings of relief. Rouse induced an inning-ending U-6-3 double play in the fifth.

The quartet permitted six earned runs on 12 hits, and were victimized by a defense that committed five errors.

Triton (8-3 overall, 3-3 ECC) sent 34 batters to the plate, including nine each in the first, third and fourth innings. Designated hitter Taylor Emory batted 3-for-3 with four RBI, while Matthew Webb doubled twice and drove in a run during three at-bats.

Aycock had just 17 batters on the night.

"I felt great going up there on the mound knowing I had a big cushion to work with and my defense behind me made it even better," McLamb said. "We knew our defense had to play well and we had to pitch well, and that's what we did."

C.B. Aycock faces West Johnston in the 2013 Pitt County Classic on Saturday. Game time is 3:30 p.m. at Guy Smith Stadium.