What started out as a solid close game between a pair of Class 3A quarterfinalists from last year in Western Albemarle and Fluvanna County turned into a bit a of wild one. It was solid baseball through three innings but after that walks, errors and wild pitches mounted and took their toll. After a nearly three hour game wrapped up and the dust suttled, the Flucos were on the far better end of the scoreboard with a 13-5 victory.
“It’s a win but we struggled a little bit at the end and that’s my fault for not getting all the guys the work they’ve needed since we got back from Myrtle Beach last week,” said Fluvanna coach Joel Gray. “We’ve just gotten out of sync in the bullpen and we were so good there last year and so we’ll be fixing that. But we swung the bat well. We hit the ball hard when we hit it, especially early and obviously it didn’t hurt that Western had some issues when we put the ball in play.”
Western drew first blood with a manufactured run that started with a leadoff walk to Wyatt Hull who was subsequently bunted over to second by Jacob Lively. Two batters later and with two outs Zach Mallia came up with an RBI single.
Fluvanna answered right back in the bottom half of the first. A single from Andrew Ward set up Jacob Critzer who delivered an RBI double the gap in left field.
In the bottom of the third, the Flucos picked up a pair of runs. The rally started with A.J. Brown reaching first on an error. That set up Ryan Groome who drove a ball deep to the gap in left for an RBI triple. Groome was brought home on a sacrifice fly from Andrew Ward in the next at bat to make it 3-1 going into the fourth.
Ward worked himself out of a jam in the top of the fourth as Western got a walk from Mallia, single from Devin Powell. A fielder’s choice put runners on the corners but got a pop out to short to keep things at 3-1 in Fluvanna’s favor.
The Flucos broke things open in the bottom of the fourth. The spree started with a pair of runners getting in scoring position with Mason Gross reaching on an error, A.J. Brown being hit by a pitch and then a balk. A walk to Andrew Ward loaded the bases for Critzer who hit a 2-run double to left center to make it a four run lead. That was followed with Kevin Ward reaching on a error to plate two more runs and he eventually scored on a wild pitch to inflate the advantage to 8-1.
“We had been struggling at the plate a little bit so we just told everyone to focus on hitting the ball on the line,” Critzer said. “The team worked through it pretty good.”
The fifth saw Fluvanna tack two more runs on the scoreboard, none of them earned with Tyler Sherman and Wyatt Dansey both scoring on wild pitches but the Flucos were unable to bring in Kevin Ward from third and end things in five innings.
The next three innings were messy. Western was able to score four runs in the sixth with a walk to Nick Fink, a Devin Powell single, an RBI double from Sims Setser, a 2-run single from Tyler Jones and a 2-out bases loaded walk to Hull. That cut the deficit to 11-5.
The Flucos came right back and plated three runs of their own in the sixth. The first came after a walk, an error and a dropped third strike that allowed Gross to score. Critzer was then hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Lastly, Kevin Ward ripped an RBI single to wrap up the scoring at 13-5. Kyle Algierie retired the side in order for the Flucos in the top of the seventh, striking out a pair of batters before getting a pop fly to end the game.
“Well you can’t hit seven people, walk seven people and make six errors and beat anybody and Fluvanna’s already good as it is,” said Western coach Skip Hudgins. “We’re young and talented and this group reminds of what Fluvanna was two years ago. But we’ve got a lot to fix and this is the worst we’ve played. We’re 5-3. Our other two losses on the year are by a run so this is easy to get over. You just flush this one away.”
Lost in the mix for Fluvanna was Andrew Ward’s 5.1 innings pitched where he struck out six batters and gave up five hits.
“He’s been solid every start so far, had good stuff today and we were just really watching his pitch count,” Gray said. “We might have pulled him early but we’ve also got to get our bullpen the work it needs so that’s what we did.”
For Fluvanna, Critzer led the way at the plate going 2-for-3 with four RBI. Western’s Powell was responsible for nearly half of his team’s hits as he went 3-for-4. With all the walks and errors, those two were the only players with multiple hits for either squad.
Western is slated to play William Monroe on Friday, weather permitting. Fluvanna travels to Louisa on Tuesday.
