Playing in temperatures closer to football if not basketball weather, things were looking promising for the Big Red to send the shivering crowd to their cars in a little bit over 90 minutes. But then things got a little frisky in each team's final at-bat, which dragged things out for another 30-40 minutes before a Brody Phillips strike-out sealed the deal on a Riverheads win that got closer than it looked like it might. In fact, to put it in TV language, the visiting Wildcats had the tying run on base and the go-ahead run at the plate when the game ended.
Prior to that late-game action, the story of the game was an outstanding pitching effort from Gladiator freshman Cason Croft. After recording what I was told was officially a no-hitter last Thursday at Stonewall Jackson, he had another fine outing tonight. By my unofficial count, he struck out at least one batter in all seven Rockbridge innings and I believe his final KO total was somewhere in the range of 12.
He looked like he would be able to go the distance with a pitch count approaching 80 and RHS ahead 6-0 when the Cats stepped up to the plate in the top of the seventh. He was greeted with a lead-off double, but then proceeded to get his final two strikeouts. Instead of putting the visitors away at that point, he lost a little bit of the control he had been showing and suddenly the bases were full of Wildcats.
Coach Painter came out of the dugout for a pep talk, no doubt with a "you've got this" message for the youngster. Instead the next batter, a humongous dude wearing number 21, smashed a ground-rule double to centerfield to finally put RCHS on the board. At that point, the RHS staff thought it best to bring Phillips in for mop-up duty. Even he struggled a little bit as the Cats plated one more run and had the sacks full again when Phillips fanned the final batter to seal the deal.
Fortunately for the Gladiators, they had just scored three of their own in the bottom of the sixth to stretch a 3-0 lead out to 6-0. The big base-knock in that rally was a double to center by Phillips that plated two runs. First baseman Holden Fitzgerald then smacked one out to right field which scored Phillips, but then he was caught trying to stretch it out to a double.
Prior to each team having their respective three-run innings, RHS had scored single runs in the second, third and fifth innings to lead 3-0. But in all honesty, the lead should have been greater than that. Not only was Croft getting the job done on the mound up to that point, but the Gladiator batters were knocking the stuffing out of the ball.
The only problem was that they were hitting it straight at someone. The Rockbridge outfielders were much busier than they probably expected to be, but they answered the challenge and I would estimate that at least 10-12 Riverheads' outs tonight were recorded by the fly ball. It was not until Phillips' double in the sixth that they finally found a gap in the Wildcat outfield.
Fortunately they were able to hit enough grounders, get enough walks, and run the bases aggressively enough to score those first three runs. But they could never quite string together consecutive hits so as to have more productive at-bats. Rockbridge's starting pitcher was decent, and kept things from getting out of hand, but he was nowhere near as effective as Croft was on the mound. So candidly the Big Red should have had a bigger lead, which would have kept the seventh from getting as close as it did.
With the win, the Gladiators move to 15-3 on the season with a trip to Alleghany on Tuesday next on the agenda. That will be an interesting game in which second place in the Shenandoah will be at stake. In the first match-up between the two, RHS was leading 2-0 entering the fifth, when they exploded for eight runs in what seemed like no time to run-rule the Cougars 10-0. Tuesday's game will likely be more of a test than that one turned out to be.
Prior to that late-game action, the story of the game was an outstanding pitching effort from Gladiator freshman Cason Croft. After recording what I was told was officially a no-hitter last Thursday at Stonewall Jackson, he had another fine outing tonight. By my unofficial count, he struck out at least one batter in all seven Rockbridge innings and I believe his final KO total was somewhere in the range of 12.
He looked like he would be able to go the distance with a pitch count approaching 80 and RHS ahead 6-0 when the Cats stepped up to the plate in the top of the seventh. He was greeted with a lead-off double, but then proceeded to get his final two strikeouts. Instead of putting the visitors away at that point, he lost a little bit of the control he had been showing and suddenly the bases were full of Wildcats.
Coach Painter came out of the dugout for a pep talk, no doubt with a "you've got this" message for the youngster. Instead the next batter, a humongous dude wearing number 21, smashed a ground-rule double to centerfield to finally put RCHS on the board. At that point, the RHS staff thought it best to bring Phillips in for mop-up duty. Even he struggled a little bit as the Cats plated one more run and had the sacks full again when Phillips fanned the final batter to seal the deal.
Fortunately for the Gladiators, they had just scored three of their own in the bottom of the sixth to stretch a 3-0 lead out to 6-0. The big base-knock in that rally was a double to center by Phillips that plated two runs. First baseman Holden Fitzgerald then smacked one out to right field which scored Phillips, but then he was caught trying to stretch it out to a double.
Prior to each team having their respective three-run innings, RHS had scored single runs in the second, third and fifth innings to lead 3-0. But in all honesty, the lead should have been greater than that. Not only was Croft getting the job done on the mound up to that point, but the Gladiator batters were knocking the stuffing out of the ball.
The only problem was that they were hitting it straight at someone. The Rockbridge outfielders were much busier than they probably expected to be, but they answered the challenge and I would estimate that at least 10-12 Riverheads' outs tonight were recorded by the fly ball. It was not until Phillips' double in the sixth that they finally found a gap in the Wildcat outfield.
Fortunately they were able to hit enough grounders, get enough walks, and run the bases aggressively enough to score those first three runs. But they could never quite string together consecutive hits so as to have more productive at-bats. Rockbridge's starting pitcher was decent, and kept things from getting out of hand, but he was nowhere near as effective as Croft was on the mound. So candidly the Big Red should have had a bigger lead, which would have kept the seventh from getting as close as it did.
With the win, the Gladiators move to 15-3 on the season with a trip to Alleghany on Tuesday next on the agenda. That will be an interesting game in which second place in the Shenandoah will be at stake. In the first match-up between the two, RHS was leading 2-0 entering the fifth, when they exploded for eight runs in what seemed like no time to run-rule the Cougars 10-0. Tuesday's game will likely be more of a test than that one turned out to be.