PIKEVILLE — Even after his team lost 7-5 Friday at C.B. Aycock to fall to 0-2 in the Eastern Carolina 3A Conference, North Lenoir coach Jim Montague refused to let the words “panic” or “concern” enter his vocabulary.
“We’ve got some kids who know how to play the game of baseball, so I’m not worried,” Montague said.
“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
Unfortunately for the Hawks (1-2 overall), how they started against the Falcons had a lot to do with their loss.
North Lenoir dug itself a 6-0 hole after two innings that could have been even worse. The Falcons had a runner thrown out trying to steal and left the bases loaded in the first stanza, and also stranded a runner in scoring position in the second.
Aycock was a timely hit away from blowing the game completely open almost before it had begun.
“We got off to a bad start, which obviously you can’t do on the road against a team of Aycock’s caliber,” Montague said. “But we buckled down, showed some grit, and made a game out of it, which says a lot about the character of this team.”
That character shined through in the fourth. North Lenoir erupted for five runs, getting an RBI single from Landon Letchworth and a two-run base hit from Daron Gray, while taking advantage of three walks and a pair of Falcons errors.
“They helped us by kicking the ball around a bit, but overall our approach at the plate was just much better in that inning,” Montague said. “We just couldn’t climb all the way out of that hole.”
The Hawks left the potential tying run on second and generated just two base runners in their final three at-bats, neither of whom advanced past first base.
Aycock (3-1, 2-0) added an insurance run in the sixth.
Justin Shimer singled in the second for North Lenoir’s only other hit.
The Falcons collected seven hits, but three Hawks hurlers combined to walk nine batters and hit another.
“I think the cold weather affected the pitchers on both sides,” Montague said. “We didn’t pitch well, but it’s still early. We’re still trying to find the right combinations, and we’ve got pitchers who haven’t had a chance to get into a game yet.”
The Hawks will look for their first league win Tuesday when they travel to Erwin Triton.
North Lenoir 000 500 0—5 3 0
C.B. Aycock 240 001 x—7 7 5
Beard, Smith (3), West (6) and Baird; Johnson, Hampton (3) and West. W—Hampton. L—Beard.