3A east regional finals: Herndon's note sparks good offensive night

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 27, 2015 2:02 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Randy Pate handed Trent Herndon a small piece of paper during second-period class last Friday.

Herndon opened the note.

Pate had noticed Herndon's anxiety at the plate and gave him some last-minute pointers for the Fike game -- be relaxed, hands first, don't let your hips open and wrote in big letters at the bottom of the note "HAVE FUN."

Herndon, second baseman for Charles B. Aycock, had the time of his life against the Golden Demons. He batted 2-for-3 with an RBI, helped ignite a back-breaking third-inning rally and recorded two putouts and three assists during a 10-0, mercy-rule thrashing of Fike.

The victory vaulted C.B. Aycock into the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A eastern regional championship series against Lee County, which begins today. First pitch is 7 p.m. at Charles Davis Field.

Game two in the best-of-three series is Thursday at Lee County. An "if necessary" game will be played Saturday on CBA's diamond.

"We are playing great right now," Herndon said. "I know after the Topsail game were talking (in practice) about mistakes -- the itsy bitsy things like getting bunts down on the first pitch, base running ... mental stuff.

"Tonight, I don't believe we had any mistakes."

Aycock (21-4 overall) played error-free behind senior right-hander Tim Naughton, who threw his first complete game in the postseason.

Naughton, left-handed ace Bobby Hampton and Kyle Davis, have combined throw all 26 innings in the playoffs. Hampton has two complete games under his belt, while Davis made an appearance against Chapel Hill.

The duo has helped reduce the pitching staff's ERA to 1.31.

"I think it's just efficiency," CBA catcher Braxton Leeper said the pitchers' recent success. "They work on their spots in the bullpen all the time and carry it onto the field. They've been out here doing it a long time."

Hampton has fashioned a 9-2 record and microscopic 0.75 ERA on the bump. That's not to mention 90 strikeouts in 65 innings on the bump. Naughton (5-1) has a 1.67 ERA and has retired 39 batters on Ks in 46 innings. Davis (3-0) has tossed 26.7 innings and logged a pair of saves.

While they've been the team's staple on the rubber, they've also done some damage at the plate along with Ashton McGee and Hank Smitherman. Each has a batting average of .333 or higher and have combined for 102 hits and 65 RBI.

McGee has mashed two home runs.

Smitherman and Hampton are the top base-running threats with 15 and 10 stolen bases, respectively.

Leeper and Herndon, along the rest of their teammates, agree they're on an "amazing" journey right now. Hampton says every time he steps onto the field he's nervous because he doesn't want it to be his last game.

He's got two more.

Leeper thinks the grind of eight conference games against 4-A powers D.H. Conley, Rose, South Central and New Bern has prepared Aycock for the postseason. The quality pitching and hitting tested their team.

Herndon agreed.

But he thinks there's more in Aycock's future.

"January 1 is when we started conditioning on the football field," Herndon said. "We met some goals. (But) actually, our (true) goal is the state championship and this is just one more step to it."