Little Giants down Draft, lead hot district baseball race
Rosanne Weber/Staff
Waynesboro’s Stevie Moreland tires to check his swing Tuesday during the Little Giants’ 8-3 win over Stuarts Draft at the KC.
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By Robert Sisk
Published: April 16, 2008
Only one team stands at the top of the Southern Valley District.
A month into the baseball season Stuarts Draft and Waynesboro were the last two teams in the Southern Valley that had yet to lose. On Tuesday night the two clashed at Kate Collins for sole ownership of the midseason district top-spot.
Waynesboro southpaw Joseph Lucas along with an offensive cast that included Eric Hall, Terrell Thompson and Jeremy Hahn led the Little Giants to a unanimous victory in the two rivals’ first bout, picking up the 8-3 win. “The top of the lineup and Joseph Lucas got the hits,” Critzer said. “Jay [Thompson] didn’t have his best game but he’s not going to have a 100 percent game all the time.”
Lucas pitched seven innings and gave up five hits while striking out five, keeping the Cougars from lighting up the scoreboard, but hr made a deeper impact at the plate reaching base twice, with both trips resulting in runs. Lucas reached on a Stuarts Draft error in the third and again in the sixth with a single.
Cougars pitcher Cameron Cook pulled off 10 strikeouts in the contest, but Draft’s defense didn’t support the pitcher’s efforts.
“Cameron pitched well,” said Cougars’ coach Josh Podgorski. “We got to play defense. Any pitcher, good or bad, if you don’t play defense behind them, eventually a team is going to start rocking them. It doesn’t matter who’s pitching. We didn’t back up our pitcher, among other things.”
On most nights 2007 Valley District hitting champion Jay Thompson is the backbone to the Little Giants offense, but on Tuesday his bat went cold going 1-for-3 including a fanning. Eric Hall took over in the box for Waynesboro batting out of the second hole.
Hall finished the day 3-for-3 with a walk, two runs and three RBI drawing praise from his teammates and his coach.
“This is the best game I have had all year,” Eric Hall said. “Everybody knows that Cameron’s fastball is his best pitch, I was sitting on it all game. Terrell gets on base every game and you know he’s going to get on base. It’s my job to move him for Jay when he gets up, but Jay had a bad night so I stepped up, and so did Josh [Craig].”
The Cougars started the night off with a Zach Marion line drive single that slapped Lucas on his left thigh and ricocheted into the infield. Lucas stayed on the ground after Marion reached first, but walked it off and continued. The Cou-gars were unable to score in the inning.
The Cougars broke first blood in the top of the third when Jon Trice reached home on a Little Giant error, but Waynes-boro would answer back in the bottom of the inning.
Lucas reached first on an error and courtesy runner Aaron Lamb filled in for the pitcher on the bases. Lamp stole sec-ond and reached third on a passed ball. Terrell Thompson batted him in and reached first on an error. Eric Hall brought Thompson in with a single and Josh Craig hit a sacrifice grounder to bring in Eric Hall.
The Cougars never took the lead again.
Waynesboro expanded is lead in the fifth with Terrell Thompson, Eric Hall and Craig all scoring. Hall and Craig each scored on a Jeremy Hahn double. The Little Giants scored two more runs in the sixth with Lucas and Terrell Thomson both crossing the plate.
The second of the Cougars’ final two runs came in the seventh. Marion hit a long drive to the center field fence, and scored on an in-the-park home run. Stuarts Draft will be back in district action on Thursday taking on Fort Defiance.
“I know we’ve got Fort on Thursday and Harrisonburg on Friday,” Podgorski said. “I haven’t even thought about Waynesboro again.” The Little Giants will play again today at Wilson Memorial.
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