ECBL: C.B. Aycock Blue squanders lead, beats E. Wayne

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on June 24, 2014 1:48 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Lloyd Lowe stepped up to the plate with the game tied in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Lowe knew he had a job to do -- put the ball in play.

He grounded out to the shortstop, but scored Bobby Hampton for the go-ahead run as Charles B. Aycock Blue handed Eastern Wayne an 11-7 defeat in Eastern Carolina Baseball League play Monday evening.

"It was big for us to put the ball in play with runners in scoring position because we've struggled with that some this summer," CBA Blue pitcher Kyle Davis said.

Trailing 6-0 after three innings, Eastern Wayne refused to lay down and scored four runs in the fourth and two runs in the fifth.

"That's the proudest I've been of them with how they didn't give up," Warriors coach Randall Fields said. "That's probably the best team we've played all year and we've played them tough both times. Last game we had them 3-1 going into the seventh inning and lost 5-3.

"Tonight we played them hard again."

The Warriors changed their approach at the plate and became more selective. A tight strike zone led to six walks and five singles during their two-inning outburst.

Davis and Eastern Wayne pitcher Braxton Lewis felt the squeeze on a few occasions and paid the price in allowing base runners. But neither pitcher was hit that hard. CBA Blue's Landon Casey had the lone extra-base hit.

Casey drove in two runs. Hampton had two hits and an RBI.

Two fielder's choice groundouts and two ground balls that resulted in errors accounted for five runs for CBA Blue. The Golden Falcons didn't strike out once all game.

"We work on it every day, you have a runner on third base (with) less than two outs just making contact and putting it in play is big," CBA Blue head coach Allen Thomas said. "We try to cut down on strikeouts because in high school baseball if the other team has to field it, throw it and catch it there's a lot of things that can go wrong."

Davis pitched four-plus innings and allowed six earned runs on six hits. He struck out two and walked four. Davis helped his own cause at the plate with three RBI on two hits. Jacob Sanford finished the game in relief for the Golden Falcons (6-2).

Lewis went four innings for Eastern Wayne and gave up six runs (four earned) on three hits and four walks. Collin Nix and Carlyle Smith pitched in relief for the Warriors, who fell to 2-10 in the league.

Brock Johnson, Smith and Ryan Warren all drove in runs for the Warriors.

Eastern Wayne plays Southern Wayne Red today while CBA Blue travels to Wilson Christian.