William Monroe was full of vigor after falling to Clarke County last Friday. After trouncing George Mason on Tuesday, the Dragons made the most of the mistakes that Madison County gave them to pave the way for a 9-3 win and strong finish to the week.
“We had our best practice of the year on Monday, played great against Mason and then played well here,” said Monroe coach Mike Maynard. “We got a great start from Spencer Eldridge which we knew we could get even though it was his first start of the year. That helped pushed our other pitchers back for next week. I’m proud of him for throwing strikes and then we got some help from (Madison) on offense, they’re young and had some struggles with errors.”
The Dragons plated three runners in the second to take the lead after a walk and four errors in the next three at-bats. Then in the fourth, Monroe went up 6-0. A walk with Anthony Pritchett and R.J Payne reaching on errors kicked off the rally, and to cap it off Toby Collier also reached on an error. In the sixth, Payne walked and was plated on a Jonathan Foster RBI groundout. Monroe tacked on two more in the top of the seventh with Pritchett earning another walk and Payne hitting an RBI triple and then scoring on a error on the same play to make it 9-1.
Madison got on the board in the fourth with a Nic Smith leadoff double and RBI single from Shane Aylor to make it 6-1. Isaiah Smith walked in the fifth and scored on when Chris Smith reach on an error in the next at-bat. Smith scored again in the seventh to cut it to 9-3 after another walk, a ground out and an error, but the game was ended after that with a grounder to shortstop.
“Unfortunately it doesn’t matter who you play — when to give up seven walks and 10 errors, you don’t have a prayer,” said Madison coach David Londrey. “That’s 17 free extra bases you’re giving up. Not much you can do with that.”
Eldridge pitched the first five innings for Monroe and struck out four straight batters between the second and third inning to pick up the win.
“My fastball was coming in but the curve ball felt really good tonight,” Eldridge said. “I stayed on top, followed through and felt like I could throw it for a strike all night. Once we got the 3-0 lead I knew I just had to throw strikes because we’ve got one of the best defenses in the Bull Run. I feel like if a pitch gets hit, someone’s going to get it almost every time.”
Madison (7-5, 4-3) travels to Rappahannock on Tuesday. Monroe (10-3, 6-1) heads to Central Woodstock on Tuesday.
