By By RON CLEMENTS Sports Correspondent
Getting timely hitting and a solid relief pitching effort from Billy Moore, the Washington Pam Pack avenged an earlier loss to Ayden-Grifton by defeating the Chargers, 9-6, Friday evening at Futrell Field. The win was the first of the season for Washington and head coach Marvin Burke.
Robbie Johnson got the Chargers (4-2) on the board first with a one-out double off of Todd Ange in the opening inning. The next batter, Brandon Gooding, knocked Ange in with an RBI-single to right.
Washington took the lead in the bottom half of the first as Alex McCarter struggled to find the strike zone early, giving six Pam Pack batters free passes in one-plus innings of work.
Corey Calloway led off the inning with a hard shot to short that was misplayed. McCarter then hit Stetson Mann before walking Carlos Guilford. After an Aaron Mobley grounder tied the game, Jock Moore drew a walk to load the bases. John Brown hit into a fielder's choice, which scored Mann and the Pack (1-3) led after one.
A pair of Pam Pack errors allowed the Chargers, ranked fourth in the state in the 1-A classification, to tie the game in the top of the second.
McCarter continued to have problems finding the strike zone in the bottom of the stanza. He walked the first three batters he faced and Ayden-Grifton coach Chris Ross had seen enough.
Ross brought in big right-hander Hunter Carnes to get out of the jam. Carnes went right at the Pam Pack batters with heat and that's exactly what Mann and Guilford were waiting for.
Mann, the first batter Carnes faced, ripped the second pitch from Carnes deep to center field for a two-run double. Guilford came right behind him and drilled a monster three-run blast over the left-field fence.
Ayden-Grifton chased Ange in the third, getting four of the runs back. Johnson led the inning off with a single. He moved over to third on a pair of errors by Blake Jamison. Bryan Ford then walked to load the bags. A fielder's choice hit by Carnes scored Johnson, but then McCarter laced a two-run triple to right and scored on a Calloway error to cut the Pam Pack lead to one.
Following McCarter's triple, Burke brought in southpaw Billy Moore. He struggled with the first two batters he faced, but then retired eight of the next nine. Moore did not allow a run in 4 2/3 innings of work.
Ross was equally impressed with Moore's outing.
The Pam Pack added some insurance runs in the fifth. With the bases loaded, Moore slapped a hard shot to short for an infield single -- scoring Mann. Brown then got his second RBI of the game with another fielder's choice, this time bringing Guilford across the plate.
Ayden-Grifton 114 000 0 -- 6 6 1
Washington 250 020 X -- 9 6 5
WP: Billy Moore; LP: Hunter Carnes
Leading hitters: AG -- Robbie Johnson 2-4 (2B, run), Brandon Gooding 1-4 (RBI), Alex McCarter 1-4 (3B, 2 runs, 2 RBI), Justin Stepps 1-3 (RBI), Wes Buck 1-3. WHS -- Stetson Mann 2-2 (2B, 3 runs, 2 RBI), Carlos Guilford 1-3 (HR, 3 RBI, 2 runs), Aaron Mobley 1-3 (RBI), Jock Moore 1-2 (RBI), Josh Eddings 1-3 (RBI).