It appears the Fluvanna County baseball team is saving the best for last.
Coming off a regular-season finale against Charlottesville in which Logan Gibson threw a no-hitter, the Flucos used another dominant performance on the mound on Friday night against Monticello in the Conference 29 quarterfinals.
Senior Jake Fulk tossed a one-hitter and Fluvanna upended the defending conference and region champions 2-0 to advance to the tournament semifinals.
“He picked a great time to throw his best game of the year,” Fluvanna coach Mike Sheridan said. “I told Jake, they haven’t seen you, they don’t know you at all, and he just attacked with the ferocity a senior has to have. I couldn’t be prouder of how well he performed in a crucial, pressure situation.”
Fulk gave up a walk to start the game, but settled in quickly, striking out the next two batters before getting cleanup batter Bryce McGlothlin to ground out. The left-hander used a variety of pitches to keep the Mustangs’ lineup off-balance and struck out the side in the third. In fact, he didn’t allow another baserunner until he walked Justin Lawhorne in the fifth inning.
“You go out and you just hope the changeball works, the curveball works and everything was on tonight,” Fulk said. “Everything thing just fell together.”
His counterpart on the mound, Carter Lee, was equally effective, as he didn’t allow a baserunner until the fourth, when he gave up back-to-back walks to Tre Bright and Shaun Holyfield with two outs. However, Holyfield was tagged out after getting caught in a rundown trying to steal second.
With two outs in the sixth, Bright smacked a double down the third baseline into left field, but Carter forced Holyfield, the cleanup batter, to ground out to shortstop to end the inning.
Monticello (10-9-1) threatened in the bottom half of the inning as Lee led off with an infield single, the team’s lone hit of the game. Tyler Walker’s sacrifice bunt moved him into scoring position and Reid Huffman drew a walk, but Fulk got out of the jam safely, recording a strikeout before Tre Bright made a nice scoop at shortstop on a ball hit by Kevin Jarrell. Fulk had at least one strikeout in every inning and finished with 11 on the night.
“In the postseason, it’s all about coming through in the clutch and they did tonight and we didn’t,” Monticello coach Corey Hunt said. “It’s that simple. Carter Lee pitched his tail off and put our team in position to win the ballgame and sometimes it doesn’t work out.”
For the second straight game against Monticello, Fluvanna used some late heroics to secure the win.
With one out in the seventh, Fulk walked, then Ty Wentz delivered a base hit and moved into scoring position after an errant throw to third. Sam Fleming followed with a two-RBI single up the middle as a pair of pinch runners — Austin Brown and Trenton Campbell — scored what would be the game-winning runs.
Fulk remained calm to close out the game, forcing two ground outs and recording a strikeout in the bottom of the seventh. The Flucos’ defense didn’t commit an error in the game.
“After we scored those two runs, I had all the confidence in my defense,” Fulk added. “My arm was still feeling great and we just went out there and executed.”
Fluvanna (8-9) will travel to Spotswood High School on Tuesday to face Fort Defiance in the semifinals.
