Powder blues lean on Whaley, secure Golden Leaf triumph

By Justin Hayes
Published in Sports on April 18, 2017 9:22 AM

• Print
• Email

WILSON --Suffocating tension.

The Charles B. Aycock varsity baseball team, beset by the rangy, hill-topping fodder of NC State signee David Harrison, survived its chokepoint on Monday, winning enough decisive moments to emerge victorious over Rocky Mount High, 3-2, during second-day action of the 2017 Golden Leaf Invitational at venerable Fleming Stadium.

Simply put, the affair was chess scrawled in the dirt.  

Both clubs trotted out their aces for the contest, and through the opening two frames, the anticipated script varied little from its writer's room formula.  Harrison dialed evenly to all portions of the strike zone with pace and run, seating four of the first seven Bluesmen he faced. His counterpart, Aycock right-hander Cody Whaley, responded in kind, dealing curvature to the Gryphons and seeing just two batters beyond the minimum over three frames -- which was precisely when CBA skipper Charles Davis made the call to go full queens gambit.

From there, Aycock began its sacrifice symphony -- led in earnest by junior Luke Frederick.

The centerfielder started the siege by squeezing a bunt down the third base chalk. His effort appeared stone dead, but morphed into a standup triple when a fielding Harrison threw wildly by senior first-baseman Spencer Ramsey.  

Moments later, on a ground ball to short by nine-holer Joey Hampton, Frederick crossed under a whistling seed to home plate by Rocky Mount shortstop Logan Pearce.

Blues one, game on.

CBA's Chandler Matthews then reached after being plunked by Harrison, and along with Hampton, moved on Bradley Pate's sacrifice a batter later.

Dangling on the cliff for an extended stay, Harrison experienced control issues, losing location on two heaves that found dirt and allowed Hampton and Matthews to score.

When its dizzying half concluded, the Pikeville nine had manufactured a critical three-run advantage.

"We weren't hitting, so we laid some bunts," head coach Charles Davis noted. "And with Cody on the mound, I knew they weren't going to have a chance to score many -- and we weren't, either."

True indeed.

What developed from there was a true regional final atmosphere, ripe with full counts, juiced bags, timely hitting and trips to the mound by each skipper.

Rocky Mount (12-5 overall) bit back in the fourth inning, scoring on an RBI by third baseman Ben Sieracki, and again in the fifth, when the Gryphons loaded the bags and for the first time all afternoon, pushed their might on Whaley.

But with peril everywhere, No. 9 responded.

The quick-working junior steadied himself and averted disaster by first dealing a question mark to Harrison, then stabbing a Jake Philbeck return-to-sender blast out of the mound's rise for the frame's final out.

His work complete, Whaley yielded matters to junior Jordan Gay in the seventh, who stymied a last-gasp Rocky Mount rally by gassing Sieracki to close the score book.

Checkmate, one might say.

"I wanted to play good competition," Davis said of the event's first two rounds. "And I'm glad we saw Gibbons' best and Rocky Mount's best -- if we want to advance in the playoffs, that's the type of pitching we need to see."

Now 13-5 on the spring, the powder blues face NCISAA 2-A outfit Rocky Mount Academy this morning at Fike High School.

First pitch is at 10 a.m.