Golden Falcons' bats waking up

By Rob Craig
Published in Sports on March 11, 2007 10:11 AM

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PIKEVILLE -- Swing the bat.

It's a simple enough concept to grasp, yet in the first two games this season, Charles B. Aycock failed to do so and ended up posting a 1-1 record while hitting a paltry .133 as a team.

The past two games, the Golden Falcons have listened to their coaches, and the results have been stunning.

On Thursday, Aycock blasted Clayton for 25 runs. Then on Friday, the Golden Falcons put 11 runs on the board against ImpactBaseball.com's No. 1 team in Class 1-A, the Princeton Bulldogs.

Aycock's six-inning, 11-1 thumping of Princeton was total domination, both at the plate and in the field.

"They finally started to swing the bats," said Aycock coach Charles Davis, whose team is ranked No. 2 in ImpactBaseball.com's 3-A poll. "You can't hit with the bat on your shoulder. We weren't aggressive the first few ballgames."

Everyone had a hand in the hit parade for the Golden Falcons as 12 different batters combined for 14 hits.

"We've got a pretty good club," said freshman shortstop Connor Narron, who smacked a two-run homer in Friday's contest. "We're all good hitters. We can all hit it well."

Aycock jumped on Princeton and starting pitcher Chris Hinton in the first inning as three straight two-out hits by the Golden Falcons turned into a 1-0 lead.

Princeton came right back in the top of the second to tie the game at 1-1 thanks to its only hits of the evening when it scored following a double by Ryan Daughtry and a single by Andrew Cobb.

In the bottom of the second inning, Aycock began to pour it on.

Seeing the ball well and making solid contact on virtually every swing, the Golden Falcons put together a run on a sacrifice fly by Bradley Taylor and two more on RBI singles by Bryant Hill and Will Edgerton to go ahead 4-1.

Narron then provided the big hit of the inning as he slammed a first pitch Hinton fast ball far over the right field fence for a two-run homer -- his second bomb in as many days.

"The home run felt pretty good," said a smiling Narron.

Colin Parker then came in and finally got the Bulldogs out of the second inning by striking out Jay Rose.

"(Aycock) jumped on us with both feet," said Princeton coach Bruce Proctor. "They let you know if you're going to come here, you're going to have to play catch up."

Coming back was not in the cards for Princeton against two talented hurlers -- both headed to Atlantic Coast Conference schools next falls.

Grant Sasser, an N.C. State signee, and Garrett Davis, a North Carolina signee, combined to hold the Bulldogs to just one run in six innings.

"We scored that one early and just kind of sat around the rest of the game," said Proctor. "We didn't even threaten."

Sasser got the win by giving up one earned run on two hits, walked none and struck out seven in four innings of work. Davis finished the Bulldogs off with two perfect innings of relief, while striking out five.

"I thought both of them threw the ball very well," said Davis. "They looked very strong."

Aycock added to its lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when Thomas Pilkington singled home two runs and Taylor tripled home another to make it 9-1.

The night drew to a close when Brandon Price came off the bench to hit a home run to lead off the sixth inning and Kyle Harmon hit a shot to the gap, with two runners on, to score Zack Wright with the final run of the night.

"We weren't taking pitches, we were swinging at pitches," said Davis.

The win improves Aycock to 3-1 on the season while Princeton drops to 1-2.

"We did pretty well today," said Narron. "We just needed a few games to get things going. Now though, we're going to score a lot of runs."

(Final in six innings)

Princeton 010 000 -- 1 2 1

C.B. Aycock 150 302 -- 11 14 1

Leading Hitters -- Princeton -- Ryan Daughtry 1-2, 2B, R; Andrew Cobb 1-2, RBI. C.B. Aycock -- Jay Rose 2-4, RBI, R; Garrett Davis 2-2, R; Connor Narron 1-3, HR, 2 RBI; Thomas Pilkington 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R; Bradley Taylor 1-3, 3B, 2 RBI; Bradon Price 1-1, HR, RBI.

LOB -- Princeton 1, C.B. Aycock 7. SB -- Hill. CS -- Cobb, Taylor, Davis. SF -- Taylor.

IP H R ER BB SO

Princeton

Hinton (L) 12/3 8 6 6 0 0

Parker 21/3 5 3 3 2 4

McLamb 12/3 3 2 2 2 3

C.B. Aycock

Sasser (W, 1-0) 4 2 1 1 0 7

Davis 2 0 0 0 0 5

(Two outs when final run scored). WP -- Parker, McLamb. HBP -- by McLamb (Wright).