SOFTBALL: CBA dealt second straight league defeat

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on March 27, 2017 9:59 AM

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By BEN COLEY

bcoley@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- The Charles B. Aycock varsity softball team has the talent to do great things.

There are 11 returning players from a roster that finished state 3-A runners-up last season. That squad only lost four games.

But having the talent and displaying the talent are two different things. That skill level was difficult to find in the Golden Falcons' 5-4 loss to Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference foe South Central on Friday evening.

CBA has lost two consecutive regular-season -- and conference -- games for the first time in two years. The team dropped a 10-4 matchup to D.H. Conley earlier in the week.

"We just have to pull it together," said Golden Falcons' head coach LaVon Matthews. "We are not a team right now. Right now, we're pointing fingers and fussing amongst ourselves. Somebody makes a mistake and they call you out on it, and they don't take it in a positive way."

South Central's batters made Taylor Waddell work for every pitch. In the first inning, lead-off hitter Madison Deanes drew a 10-pitch walk and Lauren Conway brought her home with an RBI single.

Matters worsened in the second inning.

South Central scored four more runs off an error, a two-RBI single by Deanes and an RBI single by Conway. The Falcons led 5-0 on four hits and three walks.

CBA did not reach base in either the first or second inning.

"Most games that we've played this year, we get right behind to start off with," Matthews said. "We come out here and take for granted that we're going to win this ball game or we don't have to give it 100 percent or execute."

Eventually, the Golden Falcons did showcase their true capabilities.

CBA exploded with four hits in the fourth inning. Clean-up hitter Hannah Vinson hit a two-RBI double and later scored on an error.

Then in the fifth inning, Cassandra Lassiter slammed an RBI single to cut South Central's lead to 5-4.

However, the rally dwindled.

The Golden Falcons had runners on second and third base in the sixth inning, but Waddell grounded out to end the threat. In the seventh, CBA was retired in order.

"We had a good opportunity to win this one tonight," Matthews said. "We had runners on base, and we had an opportunity to win...(South Central) should've never gotten all those runs."

Matthews said he was proud of the way his players battled despite the final result. He believes the team is broken right now, but he still thinks there's plenty of time to find the solutions.

"We're gonna regroup," Matthews said. "We're going to be okay. It's early in the season. It's not even half over yet. We'll get it fixed."