Golden Falcons' Sanford shuts down Vikings

By Brandon Davis
Published in Sports on March 23, 2016 1:49 PM

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bdavis@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Scoreless for four innings, five errors in the field and an undefeated season on the line -- Charles B. Aycock found a way to win -- on the mound.

Golden Falcons pitcher Jacob Sanford threw only two strikeouts and allowed five hits, but prevented D.H. Conley from crossing home plate in their Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference matchup on Tuesday evening.

"It first starts on the mound," Golden Falcons head coach Charles Davis said, whose team defeated the Vikings, 2-0, and improved to 10-0 on the season.

"I thought Jacob did a great job of not losing his composure. We probably made four or five errors, we dodged some bullets early, especially when (Bryant) Packard and (Holton) Ahlers at the plate up there. But again, a lot of it starts on the mound, and Jacob was good for us today on the mound."

D.H. Conley senior Jake Pollard collided with CBA senior Landon Casey on the first play of the game. Each player recovered, but the battle moved through the freshly cut grass to the pitcher's rubber.

The Vikings couldn't score against Sanford.

And the Golden Falcons were scoreless, too, until Casey slammed the ball to right field and brought in junior Chandler Matthews. Junior Ashton McGee stole home in the fifth inning.

Conley continued the battle on the mound as pitcher Phillip Sanderson threw nine strikeouts.

"Sanderson's great. He's going to Louisville," Davis said. "He's a University of Louisville guy. We got very fortunate there in the fifth inning, he walks two guys, and we get a big base hit from Casey, and McGee does a great read of the ball in the dirt from third.

"It's a whole lot better to be up two to nothing than one to nothing. It's a great win against a great program from over there. It's like I told the guys, 'we'll enjoy it today, but now come 3:15 tomorrow ready to practice. We got to get back to work'."

The Golden Falcons travel to South Central on Thursday.