By Scott Guinn / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
The Charlottesville Tom Sox finished their regular season on Sunday night in a seven inning makeup game against the Winchester Royals at C-Ville Weekly Ballpark. A combination of timely batting and first-rate pitching from the Tom Sox bullpen led to a narrow 4-3 victory for the home team.
This win means the Tom Sox will go on to play the Covington Lumberjacks in a one game tiebreaker Monday night at 7 pm in Covington. Only the winner of Monday’s matchup will go on to participate in the playoffs.
“I think we are going to play hard tomorrow. I don’t know if we’ll win, but we’re going to play hard, and that alone is a victory at this point,” said coach Mike Goldberg.
The Tom Sox found themselves down early after Royals’ Spencer Levine launched a solo home run over the center field fence. The Royals lead did not last long though as Tom Sox shortstop Seth Lancaster took the plate in the bottom of the fourth and blasted a two RBI triple to right field. Lancaster entered the at bat with only four hits in his last 42 appearances.
“I’ve been doing everything I could,” said Lancaster after the game regarding his recent slump. “I changed batting gloves, undershirts, stances, swings, shoes, socks… you name it, I did it. So it was nice to finally square one up.”
Two more runs batted in by third baseman Brian McKay and center fielder Colton Konvicka follow Lancaster’s hit to put the lead at 4-1.
Tom Sox starter Hayden McCutcheon, earned the win with 5 strikeouts and only one walk in five and two-thirds innings pitched. He is second in the Valley Baseball League in both strikeouts (58) and ERA (1.75).
In the top of the sixth with two outs, McCutcheon loaded the bases before being replaced by reliever Tad Ratliff who managed to dig the Tom Sox out of the hole with a pop fly to Lancaster at shortstop.
The Tom Sox looked to their bullpen for relief again in the seventh as Ratliff walked one and gave up three singles allowing the lead to shrink to 4-2. Zach Cook replaced Ratliff on the mound and watched his first pitch hammered back up the middle allowing the Royals to score their third run. With one out, a runner on first, and only a one run advantage for the Tom Sox, Cook forced a ground ball to Lancaster at shortstop. He flipped the ball to second and it was then fired to first for a game ending 6-4-3 double play.
The Tom Sox will look to use the experience of Sunday night’s must-win atmosphere to propel them forward.
“At this point it’s all about who wants to play hardest the longest,” said Goldberg.
