ECBL: CBA Blue shuts out Greene Central Blue

By Ben Coley
Published in Sports on June 15, 2016 1:48 PM

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bcoley@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- It was a last-ditch effort.

Down to its last out in the seventh inning, Greene Central Blue drew two consecutive walks from Charles B. Aycock pitcher Jordan Gay. Austin Hill calmly walked to the plate, hoping to light up the scoreboard.

But after a 1-2 count, Hill was frozen in the batter's box with a perfectly placed curveball at the knees, ensuring Aycock's 3-0 victory in Tuesday night's Eastern Carolina Baseball League matchup.

"(Gay's) getting more and more confident," Aycock head coach Allen Thomas said. "And that's something we've been stressing to all our guys. We've got to be able to throw more than one to two pitches for strikes. We've got to be able to get our curveball and changeup over for strikes."

Aycock manufactured its offense early in the game.

Luke Frederick hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning. Sam Mott and Carson Smitherman authored RBI singles in the second inning, marking the last shred of offense for either side.

Greene Central saw the plate well, but couldn't bring any runners home. The Rams had five different runners in scoring position, but failed to convert each time. The Rams left nine players on base. Levi Jones GC with two hits.

"We gotta work on getting on top more -- hitting more groundballs," said Greene Central head coach Scott Jones. "Line drives and long balls will take care of itself, but we gotta put more balls in play."

Rams' pitcher Jackson Batchelor tossed a complete game, giving up nine hits, just two walks and three strikeouts. He tallied one double at the plate.

"(Batchelor) battled," Jones said. "He went to three workouts today. He went to a baseball game tonight, football workout this morning and basketball this afternoon. He's a competitor -- that's what I like about Jackson."

However, the day belonged to the combined efforts of Aycock pitchers Trey Jordan and Gay. Jordan -- who picked up the win -- threw four innings, allowed four hits and struck out four batters. Gay pitched the remaining three frames and struck-out three batters, including the tricky breaking ball that sealed Aycock's victory.

It was a performance that seemed to satisfy Thomas.

"Trey played pretty well. He kept the ball down in the zone," Thomas said. "(Gay) came in throwing strikes. He walked a couple of guys with two outs, but he knows that's not something we want to do.

"Overall, both of them threw strikes, and we played decent defense behind them."