Anders, CBA 'White' escape Wayne in ECBL action

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on May 29, 2013 1:47 PM

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Wayne nearly pulled a win out of the fire.

Bryce Anders put out the flames just in time.

Wayne loaded the bases with two outs, but stranded the game-tying run on third base in the bottom of the seventh inning, and dropped a 5-4 loss to visiting Charles B. Aycock "White" in an Eastern Carolina Baseball League game Tuesday evening.

Anders worked a scoreless seventh inning to record the save.

"The last inning we had two outs and we walk a kid and then they get two bloops in and we had some kids probably getting a little nervous right there," Golden Falcons' head coach Nelson Cunningham said. "Anders did a good job and made some out pitches right there and got the next guy out."

Aycock got on the scoreboard with Ashton McGee's solo home run in the top of the second inning. Braxton Leeper's RBI single in the top of the fourth inning increased Aycock's lead to 2-0.

Caleb Smith drove home a run in the top of the fifth inning on an infield single.

Golden Falcons' starting pitcher Kyle Davis held Wayne scoreless until Mason White's pinch-hit RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning. Hunter Burt followed with a two-run double that tied the game at 3-3.

Davis allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits with two strikeouts and no walks in five innings of work. The right-hander settled for a no decision. Jacob Sanford earned the win with an inning of one-run relief.

Aycock (1-0 overall) took the lead for good at 5-3 on Sanford's two-run single through the left side of the infield in the top of the sixth inning. Sanford, Leeper and McGee each finished with two hits.

"We squeezed some runs across when we needed to," Cunningham said. "This is our young team and that was a good, quality win right there."

Wayne (1-1) scored a run on an Aycock error to pull within 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning. After its first two batters were retired quietly in the home half of the seventh inning, Wayne used a walk, a single and an error to load the bases. Anders got Mason Bland to ground out to second base to end the ballgame.

"We talked coming into the summer about battling and competing," Wayne head coach Michael Taylor said. "We don't get a chance to play these guys too often so we want to go out there and compete, and tonight we competed. We're going to learn a lot throughout the year."

Aycock White plays host to North Lenoir tonight, while Wayne travels to East Duplin on Thursday.