Friday night, Albemarle’s baseball team slogged through a game where they committed nine errors. Tuesday, there wasn’t a single error to be found as the Patriots beat Charlottesville 7-2.
Welcome to the life of a varsity squad with eight sophomores and freshmen where growth and development is key.
“It’s awesome and they’re sponges,” said Albemarle coach Jimmy Bibb. “We’ll have something that we do wrong and the next day we’ll come to work on it and correct it and they’re just right there, ready to get better. That’s the fun part.”
The Patriots got a sterling pitching performance from Bryan Malboeuf and outside of a rough, error-plagued fifth inning for the Black Knights, the game was essentially a pitcher’s duel with Charlottesville’s Jonathan Dameron handling the other half of the duties. Malboeuf struck out nine and surrendered just one run, a Banks Northington sole home run, in five innings of work. Dameron had five strikeouts and leaned on his defense which worked nicely in five of his six innings.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything more,” said Charlottesville coach Eric Lane. “He didn’t have many walks, he just made them make plays.”
Three errors in the fifth though proved to be too much for the Black Knights to overcome.
Ryan Porter finished with a 2-for-3 night at the plate and knocked in two runs while Andrew Porter, Jacob Nash and Aaron Leathers also knocked in runs. The Patriots had to battle for those seven runs though, taking advantage of Charlottesville’s mistakes.
“What I was disappointed with was our plate approach, we were so anxious that we were jumping at everything and I thought (Dameron) did a great job,” Bibb said. “But that was the only thing. Defensively (we were solid) and pitching, that was a great outing.”
While Albemarle got the win, it was also a big step forward for the Black Knights after a few frustrating results to open the season.
“I was really proud of our guys today the way that we fought,” Lane said. “We’ve been working hard each day in practice and this was a good start to play seven innings and be right in it, that one tough inning is what got it.”
T.J. Hoylman had the Black Knights other RBI, plating Brett Martin.
Albemarle faces a quick turnaround as they battle Eastern View at home Wednesday night while Charlottesville will look to continue building momentum with a home game Thursday against Culpeper.
