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Enduring an emotionally challenging week, the Rockbridge County High School baseball team won all three of its games last week, defeating Valley District rivals Turner Ashby and Broadway and taking down nondistrict rival James River.
The Wildcats (9-9 overall, 3-4 district) were playing with heavy hearts after RC senior Devin Riley was killed in a single-vehicle crash near Fairfield last Sunday night, May 7. Riley, 18, had played varsity baseball for one year and football for four years.
Reacting to the news, RC head coach Travis Roadcap said, “There are bigger things than baseball, and we completely left Monday’s game up to the players via vote following the death of such a special student-athlete, and our kids wanted to play. So proud of these kids to go 3-0 this week when we were hit with some tragic news.”
“Whenever you can beat two Valley District teams in the same week, it’s a very good week,” added Roadcap.
The Wildcats started the week with an 11-4 road win over James River on Monday of last week in Buchanan. Five days earlier, RC had beaten JR 16-6 in six innings in Lexington. The Knights ended the week at 7-11 overall.
In last Monday’s game, the Wildcats jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the first three innings and stayed comfortably ahead for the rest of the game.
In the first inning, RC’s Cohen Paxton singled on a line drive to center field to bring home Clay Irvine, and Paxton scored on a groundout by Tucker Hopkins to make it 2-0.
The Wildcats added three more runs in the second. Derek Smith singled to center field to bring home Sean Martino, and Paxton hit a grounder to drive in Drew Potter. Nolan Stines then scored on a JR error to extend RC’s lead to 5-0.
The Knights scored their first run in the second when Taylor Wilson singled on a hard grounder to third base to bring home Colin Cook.
In the top of the third, RC’s Brady Majors scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by Potter. The Wildcats scored again when Irvine was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, driving in Price Lunsford. Paxton then walked with the bases loaded to bring home Stines, extending the Wildcats’ lead to 8-1.
JR cut the lead to 8-3 in the bottom of the third when Ethan Sherman singled on a fly ball to left field to drive in Cook and Johnathan Austin. The Knights added another run in the fourth when Heath Andrews doubled on a fly ball to left field to bring home Hunter Mays, cutting RC’s lead to 8-4.
The Wildcats scored their final three runs in the seventh. With the bases loaded, Smith was hit by a pitch, driving in Potter. Stines then scored on a passed ball, and Hopkins hit a grounder to bring home Irvine.
JR recorded nine hits, while the Wildcats had seven, but RC’s hits were more timely. Smith led RC with two hits and had two RBIs, while Paxton led the Wildcats with three RBIs and had one hit.
Leading the Knights with two hits each were Andrews, Cook and Wilson.
Majors pitched the first 4.1 innings for RC, striking out four and allowing seven hits, two walks and four runs (three earned). Tucker Entsminger came to the mound for the final 2.2 innings, striking out two and surrendering two hits, one walk and no runs. The Knights used three different pitchers.
RC committed three errors, while JR had one.
RC 8, TA 7
The Wildcats overcame a 7-0 deficit to earn an 8-7 home win over Turner Ashby last Wednesday.
With the victory, RC avenged a 4-2 April 21 road loss to the Knights, who ended the week at 13-7 overall and 4-4 in the district. It was the Wildcats’ first win over TA in five years.
Roadcap said the player who probably stepped up the most for the Wildcats was relief pitcher Zac Majors. After the Knights scored seven runs in the first, Majors replaced Martino, RC’s starting pitcher.
In 5.1 innings of relief, Majors struck out two and allowed four hits, three walks and no runs. Roadcap praised Majors for “shutting the door” on the Knights. Bennett Bishop then came to the mound for the seventh inning and struck out three while allowing no hits, one walk and no runs.
The Knights started their offensive surge in the first inning when Jack Fox singled on a hard grounder to center field to bring home Micah Matthews and Caden Swartley. Connor Harold then doubled on a line drive to center field to drive in Fox and Brandon Pettit. Brooks Bowman singled on a line drive to left field to bring in Harold, and Grayson Smith singled on a hard grounder to left field to drive in Adam Thomas and Caden Simmers, giving TA a 7-0 lead.
It didn’t take long for the Wildcats to have their own big inning, as they scored six runs in the second. The first two came on a double on a hard grounder by Lunsford, bringing home Brady Majors and Trevor Hoke. Potter then scored on an error, and Irvine doubled on a line drive to center field to drive in Lunsford and Stines, cutting TA’s lead to 7-4. Stines scored on a groundout by Smith, and Irvines scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Paxton, trimming the Knights’ lead to 7-6.
The Wildcats tied the game 7-7 in the fourth when Stines scored on a passed ball. RC scored the winning run in the fifth when Hopkins doubled on a fly ball to left field and then ran home on a groundout by Brady Majors.
RC racked up 12 hits against TA pitcher Clay Guyer, who pitched a complete game, striking out two and allowing no walks and eight runs (five earned). TA recorded 10 hits against RC’s three pitchers.
Leading the Wildcats with two hits each were Irvine, Hopkins and Brady Majors. Pettit paced the Knights with three hits, while Fox had two hits and two RBIs.
RC and TA each committed one error.
Reviewing his team’s performance, Roadcap said he was “So proud of these kids for not hanging their heads and battling back to knock off a very good TA team.”
RC 9, Broadway 3
On Friday, RC broke away from a 3-3 game by erupting for six runs in the sixth inning to earn a 9-3 road win over Broadway.
With the victory, the Wildcats avenged a 9-5 April 25 home loss to Broadway (12-8, 5-3).
In the rematch, the Wildcats took a 2-0 lead in the first. Smith doubled on a line drive to right field to bring home Irvine, and Hopkins doubled on a grounder to left field to drive in Smith.
The Gobblers cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the first when Bransen Hensley scored on an RC error.
RC went up 3-1 in the top of the second when Potter scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Smith, but Broadway cut the lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the second when Hensley singled to left field to drive in Elijah Hall. The Gobblers tied the game 3-3 in the fourth when Hensley singled on a grounder to bring home Shea Kushner.
In the sixth, the Wildcats loaded the bases, and Smith was hit by a pitch, bringing home Potter. Paxton then walked to drive in Lunsford, and Irvine scored on a sacrifice fly by Hopkins to extend RC’s lead to 6-3. The Wildcats scored the final three runs of the game when Thomas Armstrong doubled on a line drive to center field to bring home Smith, Paxton and Brady Majors.
The Wildcats recorded eight hits against three Broadway pitchers, while the Gobblers had five hits.
Leading RC with two hits each were Irvine and Hopkins, who had two RBIs. Hensley led Broadway with three hits and two RBIs.
Paxton pitched the first six innings for the Wildcats, striking out six and surrendering five hits, five walks and three runs (one earned). In one inning of relief, Bishop struck out two and allowed no hits, no walks and no runs.
RC committed three errors, while Broadway had two.
Reviewing the week, Roadcap said, “We battled, competed and never gave up,” he said. “We’re healthy at the right time, and it’s starting to show.”
Rodacap said the two Valley District wins should give the Wildcats a good chance of having a Region 3C tournament home game for the second consecutive year. The Wildcats were scheduled to play host to Harrisonburg yesterday and will conclude the regular season with a nondistrict game at Alleghany tonight, Wednesday, at 6 p.m.
