Warren makes adjustment, has stellar night at the plate

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 14, 2016 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Eastern Wayne's Ryan Warren watched his inning-ending, lazy fly ball settle into the glove of Charles B. Aycock center fielder Chandler Matthews.

"(Coach Jabo Fulghum) always tells me to stay relaxed, hit through the ball because I have a tendency of pulling my head out and popping up," Warren said.

It didn't happen again.

The Golden Falcons' outfielders stopped in their tracks as Warren's next two at-bats resulted in two-RBI home runs -- one to left field and the other to center field. The round-trippers sparked the Warriors' come-from-behind 8-4 victory at Charles Davis Field on Wednesday evening.

Warren collected four RBI for Eastern Wayne, which seized sole possession of the Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference race at 5-1. Aycock, which has lost its swagger since a 15-0 start, dropped its second straight outing against an ECC opponent.

"I don't know what their record was before tonight, but they're one of our biggest rivalries and it was a great win for us tonight," EW outfielder Carlyle Smith said.

More on Smith later.

The Golden Falcons grabbed a 3-0 lead against Warrior southpaw Tanner Wells in the bottom of the second inning. Kyle Davis plated Landon Casey with a two-out single and trotted home on Bryce Anders' bases-clearing homer to left field.

Eastern Wayne (12-3 overall) answered during its next at-bat. Shortstop Ashton McGee and left fielder Bradley Pate got tangled up on a short fly ball by Wells. The ball popped out of McGee's glove as he tumbled over Pate, who injured his left ankle on the play.

Pate was helped off the field.

Warren followed with his first home run.

"A fastball ... think it was inside," Warren grinned.

An infield error allowed the Warriors to tie the game at 3-all and spark an eight-run outburst that covered three consecutive innings. Until that point, EW had sent just 11 batters to the plate.

Davis and reliever Jacob Sanders combined to face 25 batters over the final four innings.

Warren's second round-tripper occurred in the fifth. Collin Nix dropped a two-strike RBI single into right field. In the sixth, Smith delivered a two-strike two-RBI single that extended the Warriors' advantage to 8-4.

"That was the at-bat where the batter walked ahead of me and that kind of gave me a little bit more motivation to get a hit," Smith said of the intentional free base given to Warren. "I just tried to stay relaxed to the plate, stay short to the ball and not try to get long to it."

Smith ended the night 3-for-4.

The offensive surge, along with Brock Johnson's U-4-3 double play that squelched an Aycock rally in the fourth, rejuvenated Wells. He eventually worked 6 2/3 innings and gave up six earned runs on six hits.

Wells retired eight of nine batters at one point until yielding a lead-off walk to Joey Hampton in the bottom of the seventh. He kept the ball down in the strike zone and got better results once he stopped trying to guide his pitches.

"That was a big double play, got me out a jam and (I'm) glad the kid swung on a 2-0 count because I was in a bit of a pickle," said Wells, who had loaded the bases on two walks and two singles that led to CBA's fourth run.

"That picked me up and I felt like I got a lot better on as the game went. It could have gone really bad, but fortunately it went good."

Aycock pulled within 8-6 in the seventh, but Zack Smith closed the door for his team-leading third save of the season.

"We're not playing defense well enough, we're not pitching well enough right now and we're not grinding out enough at-bats right now and those are the three things you've got to do to be successful," said CBA head coach Charles Davis, whose team committed five errors that led to six unearned runs.