Although there are still a few games left for every team in the district, the Wilson Green Hornets certainly appear to be headed for the Shenandoah District baseball title after today's 4-0 win over Riverheads on the Gladiator diamond. With the win, the Green Team holds a three-game lead in the loss column over both RHS and Alleghany, and it is highly unlikely they will lose three games down the stretch. If they do go on to clinch the title, it will mean a district championship in all three major sports in the same year.
The man of the hour for the Hornets today was senior pitcher Christian Brewer, who picked up his second win of the season over the Gladiators. After winning the first time 2-1, he was more impressive today, going the distance in an outing that went just a shade over 100 pitches. RHS senior Brody Phillips went five frames for the Red Pride and gave up all four runs, before being relieved by freshman Jackson Berkstresser, who held WM scoreless for the final two innings.
Wilson opened the scoring in the top of the first when Juan-Michael Aguirre registered the first hit of the game. The Gladiators tried to keep him chained to first but the second of two pick-off attempts went awry and he moved to second, eventually coming around to score. The visitors then strung together three singles in the top of the third to score the final three runs of the game.
Brewer held the Big Red without a hit for the first three innings, but to their credit the Gladiators kept fighting and managed at least one base-runner in all four of their final at bats, but could never push across a run, as they suffered their only shut-out loss of the season. The Gladiators are now 12-3 on the year, with their only other loss being 8-7 to Stuarts Draft.
Their best chances to score were in the fourth and fifth. Chase Donathan opened the fourth with a double to left field that briefly looked like it had a chance to leave the yard. The Hornet outfielder made a valiant attempt to haul it in but could not corral it. Donathan eventually made it to third but was left stranded.
In the fifth, the first two Gladiator batters reached safely but again, they were not able to advance them. The Big Red then had lesser threats in both the sixth and seventh, but Brewer was able to frustrate them in those two innings as well.
Speaking of frustrating, that famous Greenville wind was in rare form again today. Although it was warm, the wind reached a fever pitch on several occasions. It is not accurate to say it favored either team because they each had to play in it, but it was certainly annoying for the fans. At one point, I believe the home plate umpire called a time-out and held up the action for a few seconds while a particularly brisk gust did its thing.
As mentioned, the Gladiators are now locked in a battle for second place with Alleghany. However, with the regular season race pretty much locked up for Wilson, the key now is for all the Shenandoah teams to jockey for regional seeding and try to put as many teams as possible into the post-season. Wilson is of course safe in Class 3, and Alleghany presumably will join them there when the time comes.
Since the majority of their wins have come over teams in either Class 2 or Class 3, Riverheads is in awesome shape for the Region 1-B playoffs and may even clinch the number one seed. However beyond those top three, there is a huge drop off as everybody else has at least 6 losses in district play, and only Stuarts Draft has an overall winning record. So it could be touch and go to see if the district gets more than those three teams into the playoffs.
The next scheduled game for Riverheads is a make-date for a non-district game at Stonewall Jackson. As of the moment, that is on the calendar for Thursday, which is not predicted to be a very pleasant day weather-wise. So maybe it gets played, maybe it will be re-scheduled, or it may have to be canceled altogether. The next district game will be next Tuesday at Fort Defiance.
Although today's baseball game was a disappointment for Big Red fans, the news was much better on the softball diamond, where the Lady Gladiators squeezed out a 3-2 victory over the Hornets. That win made up for a 10-0 shellacking suffered earlier on the Hornet field.
The man of the hour for the Hornets today was senior pitcher Christian Brewer, who picked up his second win of the season over the Gladiators. After winning the first time 2-1, he was more impressive today, going the distance in an outing that went just a shade over 100 pitches. RHS senior Brody Phillips went five frames for the Red Pride and gave up all four runs, before being relieved by freshman Jackson Berkstresser, who held WM scoreless for the final two innings.
Wilson opened the scoring in the top of the first when Juan-Michael Aguirre registered the first hit of the game. The Gladiators tried to keep him chained to first but the second of two pick-off attempts went awry and he moved to second, eventually coming around to score. The visitors then strung together three singles in the top of the third to score the final three runs of the game.
Brewer held the Big Red without a hit for the first three innings, but to their credit the Gladiators kept fighting and managed at least one base-runner in all four of their final at bats, but could never push across a run, as they suffered their only shut-out loss of the season. The Gladiators are now 12-3 on the year, with their only other loss being 8-7 to Stuarts Draft.
Their best chances to score were in the fourth and fifth. Chase Donathan opened the fourth with a double to left field that briefly looked like it had a chance to leave the yard. The Hornet outfielder made a valiant attempt to haul it in but could not corral it. Donathan eventually made it to third but was left stranded.
In the fifth, the first two Gladiator batters reached safely but again, they were not able to advance them. The Big Red then had lesser threats in both the sixth and seventh, but Brewer was able to frustrate them in those two innings as well.
Speaking of frustrating, that famous Greenville wind was in rare form again today. Although it was warm, the wind reached a fever pitch on several occasions. It is not accurate to say it favored either team because they each had to play in it, but it was certainly annoying for the fans. At one point, I believe the home plate umpire called a time-out and held up the action for a few seconds while a particularly brisk gust did its thing.
As mentioned, the Gladiators are now locked in a battle for second place with Alleghany. However, with the regular season race pretty much locked up for Wilson, the key now is for all the Shenandoah teams to jockey for regional seeding and try to put as many teams as possible into the post-season. Wilson is of course safe in Class 3, and Alleghany presumably will join them there when the time comes.
Since the majority of their wins have come over teams in either Class 2 or Class 3, Riverheads is in awesome shape for the Region 1-B playoffs and may even clinch the number one seed. However beyond those top three, there is a huge drop off as everybody else has at least 6 losses in district play, and only Stuarts Draft has an overall winning record. So it could be touch and go to see if the district gets more than those three teams into the playoffs.
The next scheduled game for Riverheads is a make-date for a non-district game at Stonewall Jackson. As of the moment, that is on the calendar for Thursday, which is not predicted to be a very pleasant day weather-wise. So maybe it gets played, maybe it will be re-scheduled, or it may have to be canceled altogether. The next district game will be next Tuesday at Fort Defiance.
Although today's baseball game was a disappointment for Big Red fans, the news was much better on the softball diamond, where the Lady Gladiators squeezed out a 3-2 victory over the Hornets. That win made up for a 10-0 shellacking suffered earlier on the Hornet field.
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