Golden Falcons rally past Orange in 3A softball playoffs

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 16, 2015 11:27 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- It was a heads-up play.

Mackenzie Wheeler saw Orange catcher Mia Davidson bobble a low pitch during the bottom of the fifth inning. She took off toward third base and drew an errant throw from Davidson that sailed into left field.

Wheeler didn't stop.

"(Charles B. Aycock coach Emily Burke) just said keep going, keep going," a grinning Wheeler said.

The sophomore first baseman raced home and slid head first across the plate. Suddenly, a three-run deficit had turned into a 4-3 advantage.

But the Golden Falcons weren't done.

Another infield error led to a fifth run and Wheeler smashed a two-run homer in the sixth inning to cap Aycock's come-from-behind, 7-3 conquest of the Panthers in round two of the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A playoffs.

The reigning eastern champions, the Golden Falcons (13-8 overall) face either unbeaten Cardinal Gibbons or South Johnston in third-round play Tuesday.

"I was proud of them," Burke said. "Obviously, our goal was to win every inning. We pulled that one out, capitalized on their errors and that what's we've been preaching that all year long.

"When it's there in front of you, you've got to take it and that's what they did. We had a very good inning."

But Lady Luck nearly walked out on CBA.

The 25-seeded Panthers built a 3-0 lead on two solo home runs by Davidson, and an RBI sacrifice fly to center field by Kyrbee Cheek.

Orange right-hander Kristina Givens

The Golden Falcons couldn't solve pitcher Kristina Givens and bit on her change-up on several occasions. Aycock put eight runners aboard through the first four innings, but left six stranded -- four in scoring position.

"We weren't stringing our hits together," Burke said. "A lot of that is because we were way ahead of those pitches, we were pulling our head out, we were way out front (and) leaning forward off balance.

"We finally got our approach at the plate fine tuned in that (fifth) inning and we got it to come together."

Hannah Vinson, Madison Walton and Keeley Fulghum connected on consecutive singles to load the bases in the fifth. Wheeler plated Vinson with a single.

After a strikeout, the Orange infield committed back-to-back errors on routine ground balls. The defensive miscues allowed Aycock to tie the game at 3-3.

Wheeler then forced the bad throw from Davidson.

"She's a good catcher and that's just a heads-up play, she's (Wheeler) is a good base runner," Burke said.

Aycock southpaw Allie Phillips missed some spots early, but recovered nicely inside the circle. The returning starter retired 15 of the final 18 batters she faced after Davidson swatted a third-inning home run.

Phillips permitted six and retired eight Panther batters on strikeouts. She induced an infield pop-up from Davidson to end the game.

"When she's under pressure, she works hard and that hard work is paying off for her," Burke said of Phillips. "We missed a couple of places (with pitches), saw that was hurting her, focused a little harder and got the job done."