BEAR CREEK — Southpaw Caleb Staley fanned a dozen batters and allowed just four hits over five and two-third innings while Chatham Central collected nine hits off a trio of Asheboro hurlers as the Bears streaked by the Blue Comets 9-0 in non-conference diamond action Thursday night on Ronald Scott Field.
With a sweep of the season series, Chatham Central improved to 4-5 overall and evened its all-time record against Asheboro at 2-2, while the Blue Comets fell to 4-6 for the year.
While picking up the win, Staley struck out at least two batters every inning except the fourth and only issued one walk before having to depart the mound due to the pitch-count rule.
Micah Gurley replaced Staley on the hill and retired all four batters he faced, including striking out the side in the top of the seventh.
“We finally played a full seven-inning game tonight and performed well in all three phases – pitching, hitting and defense,” remarked Bears’ coach Brett Walden.
“Our pitching was outstanding, as Caleb and Micah combined to account for 15 strikeouts, and we got hits from eight different players while committing no errors in the field.”
Asheboro starting pitcher Levi Kinney lasted just one and two-third innings and took the loss after giving up six runs (five earned) on three hits in addition to walking three and whiffing one.
Blue Comets’ reliever Easton Price tossed four complete frames and was tagged for five hits and three unearned runs besides issuing one free pass and striking out three prior to Kevin Laur yielding one hit and fanning one in one-third of an inning of work.
“We struggled on the mound tonight and didn’t have good approaches at the plate,” said Asheboro coach Brett Hoogkamp.
“We don’t have a lot of arms available right now with a couple of guys missing from our roster and it was only the second outing for our starting pitcher, while Chatham Central managed to get some big two-out hits to drive in six of their runs.”
The Bears sent 10 men to the plate in the bottom of the second and exploded for six runs to put the game away early.
Chatham Central loaded the bases with one away on walks to Tyson Measamer, Zach Ritter and Jackson Gray before Hunter Strickland grounded a two-run single to left.
One out later Drew Cox punched an opposite-field base hit to right to drive in Gray and advance Strickland to third prior to the latter coming in to score on a wild pitch as Gray moved to second.
Moore then plated Cox with an opposite-field single to right and continued on to second when the ball was misplayed in the outfield before tallying on Staley’s bloop hit to center.
The Bears picked up a solo run in the home third to go up 7-0 as leadoff batter Carter Fuquay reached on an infield error, was sacrificed to second and went to third on Gray’s base hit to left prior to scoring on Lofton Dodson’s two-out single up the middle.
Chatham Central put the finishing touch on it rout by tallying a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Dodson reached on an infield error leading off the inning and went to second on a one-out free pass issued to Moore.
After both runners advanced a base on a groundout, Measamer stroked a two-run base hit to center to complete the scoring.