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Aycock pitches a gem, East Prairie shuts out Charleston on the road
CHARLESTON, Mo – For over the past decade the Charleston Bluejays and East Prairie Eagles have extended their Red-Blue Rivalry to the baseball field, with the winner of their annual regular season meeting taking home the Red-Blue trophy.
Thanks to a complete-game one-hitter from senior Carson Aycock and a 12-hit effort from the offense, the Eagles once again took the trophy back to East Prairie with a 6-0 road-win over the Bluejays.
“Carson threw the ball well,” East Prairie head coach Dalton Golightly said. “Offensively there were multiple innings where we had runners in scoring position and didn’t get them across until late.
“(Charleston pitcher Dawson) Crawford is phenomenal as a sophomore. He’s really good. To put up six runs when he’s throwing is an accomplishment.”
Aycock allowed seven base runners on the night, but only one by a hit and even that was a close play.
With one out in the bottom of the fifth Eric Humphrey hit a blooper to shallow center field. Several fielders merged near the ball, and a sliding center fielder made a play on the ball only to see it go off his glove.
Aycock walked three batters and hit two more while striking out 13 on the game.
“He’s a four-year starting senior,” Golightly said of Aycock. “He’s the guy we rely on, so he’s pretty good himself.”
After four scoreless innings, East Prairie’s Aycock had some help in the top of the fifth. A double-play left the bases empty before an infield single by Jase Aycock put the eventual winning runner on first.
A steal put the runner in scoring position before Carson Aycock stepped to the plate and helped his own cause, singling in Jase to make it a 1-0 game.
The Eagles (6-2) added another two runs in the sixth and three in the seventh to make up the final.
“The kids were aggressive at the plate at the end of the game,” Golightly said. “We wanted to be aggressive on the base path. When we started being aggressive at the plate, we started scoring guys and went from there.”
Despite their offensive struggles the Bluejays (0-7) had several chances to tie the game or take the lead late.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, trailing 3-0, Charleston loaded the bases on a pair of walks and an error.
Before there was any damage, however, Carson Aycock struck out three straight Bluejays to leave the inning unscathed.
Charleston put a runner on in five different innings with runners reaching scoring position in four of those.
“The kicker tonight is we get bases-loaded there and no one out,” Charleston head coach Michael Minner said. “We get three consecutive strikeouts. When things are not going well, they just snowball like that. We have to change our fate.
“We’re a hit or two away in games where we could have had the lead. If we just get a hit or two, it’s going to make us breathe easier.”
Starting pitcher, Crawford went five innings for the Bluejays before getting relieved with two runners on and no outs in the fifth.
He allowed nine hits and no walks while fanning seven.
Leading the Eagles’ 12-hit performance was Carson Aycock, Harrison Moore and Even Howell with two hits each. Lane Moody doubled, and Jack Scruggs tripled.
“We’re working hard,” Minner said. “(Our kids) deserve to win. I’m hard to play for. We put so much work in. It’s disappointing when things don’t go your way, but we have to be better defensively. We have to be better offensively as well. It’s bad.
“We had one hit, and that probably is a play they should have made.”
East Prairie 000 012 3 – 6 12 2
Charleston 000 000 0 – 0 1 4
WP – Carson Aycock. LP – Dawson Crawford. Multiple hits: Carson Aycock 2-4 (EP), Harrison Moore 2-3 (EP), Evan Howell 2-3 (EP). 2B – Lane Moody (EP). 3B – Jack Scruggs (EP).