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When the final out went up on the board, it was the Panthers feeling the heat with their first conference loss, and Central stepping right back into the hunt with a 5-1 victory. Ledford now has just a one game lead over Salisbury at 7-1 with the Spartans moving to 5-3.
“This was a big game for us and probably the season at this point as far as staying in that 1-2-3 range in the conference,” said Central coach Jonathan Brown.
Ledford had its chances to put more runs on the board against Central starter Trevor Leonard (3-1), but the hits just never seemed to fall at the necessary time. The Panthers only managed consecutive hits one time the entire seven innings.
“We just couldn’t get the big hit at the key time, and we have been doing a really good job of doing that throughout the season,” said Ledford head man Chris Adams. “Give their guy credit for getting it done when we had runners on.”
Central was aggressive on the base paths realizing just how important it is to get some runs against a team like the Panthers.
UNC signee Chaz Frank doubled to open the second inning on Ledford pitcher Ricky Vaughn (3-2), and scored two batters later with Ben Frazier lacing a double past Jacob Scott in left. Leonard had reached after getting plunked in the back, and courtesy runner Jonathan Evans made it to third on the double. Brown tried to force the issue on a squeeze play, but the batter could not get the bunt down and Ledford catcher Patrick Koontz alertly tagged Evans out at the plate. Frazier moved up to third and scored on a single, though, giving the Spartans a 2-0 lead.
Ledford got a run back in the bottom half with Sam Berrier taking one in the back for the team and later scoring on Cory Alcon’s bloop single to right.
LHS faced an uphill battle in the fourth with Vaughn giving up three consecutive hits on a single, double and triple. Two runs crossed the plate making it a 4-1 Central lead, but Ledford got a little something going in the fourth as well only to see it go for naught.
Ryan Fitzgerald had a two-out single fall and Alcon executed a hit-and-run to perfection with his second hit of the night to right. Fitzgerald reached third putting runners on the corner, but Luke Ledwell hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
Central plated an insurance run in the seventh leaving Ledford looking for four runs to tie, but Leonard buckled down for two strikeouts in the final frame for a crucial CCC victory.
“Trevor stepped up for us, and I thought we did a great job at the plate tonight with some timely hits,” said Brown. “Hopefully we are breaking out of our offensive funk it feels like we have been in the whole year.”
This was the first of three game’s in a busy week for the Panthers. Though giving one back to the rest of the field Ledford is still in good shape, but the wiggle room has tightened up significantly.
“We’ve still got a little bit of room, but not a lot much more room for error,” said Adams.
Leonard struck out seven while giving up seven hits, with Vaughn striking out eight in allowing nine hits. Koontz paced Ledford with a 3-for-3 effort and Central was led by Landon Clark and Jordan Hedrick’s two hits each.