BASEBALL -- C.B. Aycock emerges on Gipson's walk-off

By Ben Coley
Published in Sports on April 29, 2017 11:06 PM

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bcoley@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock was far from its best against New Bern on Friday night.

Three errors and a three-run deficit will be a definite eye sore in the statbook.

Yet there Blake Gipson was, up to bat in the bottom of the seventh -- game tied at 4-4, two outs and Joey Hampton on third.

The Golden Falcons may have been struggling, but Gipson made those issues irrelevant with one swing. The junior smacked the first pitch he saw and CBA clinched a 5-4 victory over the Bears.

"We got down, which was uncharacteristic," said CBA head coach Charles Davis. "...But one thing about these kids, our kids are resilient. Kind of reminds me of that D.H. Conley game. We got down, but never quit. We kept battling and battling."

The Conley game -- which took place 15 days prior -- ended in eight innings after a walk-off home run by Carson Smitherman. The Golden Falcons were down by as many as six runs in that matchup.

Friday night -- a similar scenario.

New Bern's Brad Barlow slammed a two-RBI double in the second inning. In the third, Jacob Long scored from second base after Golden Falcons' pitcher Luke Frederick made a wild throw to first.

Meanwhile, CBA's bats seemed frozen. After two hits in the first inning, the Golden Falcons didn't register a base runner for the next three frames.

"I think it was just their kid (Bears' pitcher Jay Pike) making good pitches," Davis said. "I thought we had some defensive swings, but sometimes you have to tip your hat to their pitcher...He hides the ball well, and he spots the ball well."

Despite Pike's performance, CBA's perseverance started to poke through in the final three innings.

After scoring no runs through four frames, the Golden Falcons recorded two runs in both the fifth and sixth inning.

Hampton opened the seventh inning with a bunt. New Bern's pitcher airmailed the first baseman, which allowed Hampton to take second. A groundout by Chandler Matthews advanced Hampton to third, setting up Gipson's walk-off hit.

"With two outs like that, (Gipson's) just looking for a pitch to hit," Davis said. "But he's swung the bat good all year for us...I told Blake to look for one hit and he looked for it and got it."

Matthews, Chris Turner and Smitherman led CBA with two hits apiece. Frederick allowed eight hits and struck out four in six innings.

The Golden Falcons have won nine of their past 10 games and are in second place in the Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference. All of those victories haven't been pitch perfect -- particularly against the Bears -- but Davis is only concerned with what the final scoreboard shows.

"At this stage in the season, we're taking wins right now," Davis said. "We got to clean some stuff up, but again it's like I told them the other day. The mark of a good team is winning games when you don't play well."