Naughton's 8th-inning, walk-off single lifts Aycock past Ragsdale

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on April 4, 2015 11:34 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

WILSON -- After dropping two back-to-back, eight-inning games this week, Charles B. Aycock head coach Charles Davis knew his team was going to figure out how to win those close contests.

They finally did Saturday afternoon.

Jacob Naughton delivered a walk-off, bases-loaded single in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Golden Falcons an 8-7 win over Jamestown Ragsdale in the second annual Golden Leaf Invitational.

Ragsdale proved to be one of the best-hitting teams Aycock has seen this season. Despite mixing his speeds and hitting hits spots, starting pitcher Kyle Davis allowed the Tigers to put up seven runs in five innings.

"They were just hitting the ball," coach Davis said. "Kyle threw the ball well. That's a good team over there."

After Davis allowed two singles to start the fifth, Jacob Sanford came in relief and nearly got out of the inning. But a base hit brought in two runs to make the game 7-3.

Sanford was nearly flawless after that.

"I just wanted to come in and throw strikes and hit my spots and make them put it in play," said Sanford who pitched four innings of two-hit, four-strikeout relief.

But the Golden Falcons' problems haven't been on the mound.

The problem has been stringing hits and runs together. Assistant coach Allen Thomas spent the past few days talking to players about their plate approaches.

"He's just been talking to them about knowing what they want to do at the plate when the count goes to 1-0, or 2-0," Davis said. "Today was the first day we've seen them collectively have good plate approaches."

In the fifth inning, the Golden Falcons (9-3 overall) showed they paid attention. They put up four hits and scored four runs to tie the game.

Two innings later, Aycock had a chance to win the game when Naughton led off the bottom of the seventh with a double. But the Golden Falcons failed to manufacture that run.

Instead it was Naughton, again, who came up in a big spot in the bottom of the eighth -- with the bases loaded and no outs.

"I just knew I was looking to drive the ball up the middle or to the right side," Naughton said. "I got a fastball and drove it."

Naughton finished with four hits in the game. Bobby Hampton added three hits and Hank Smitherman chipped in two hits. Sanford added an RBI double.

"The guys fighting back like that and being able to come from behind and get one is going to be a huge confidence boost for us," Davis said. "We had a tough week, but we played well against North Lenoir and this win is another good one."

The top five hitters in the Golden Falcons' lineup -- Ashton McGee, Chandler Matthews, Hampton, Smitherman and Naughton -- combined to score all eight runs and had 10 of the team's 12 hits.