Charlottesville’s baseball team faced a tall task in the squad’s home opener Thursday night, battling the reigning state champions Fluvanna County.
The Black Knights met the challenge in a big way, stunning the Flucos 8-5 with a come-from-behind win sparked by a huge fourth inning.
“It means everything, I’m still heartbroken for the seven seniors that we had last year that never got a chance to show what they worked so hard for, and I told the guys Tuesday against Louisa a year later ‘here we are’,” said Charlottesville coach Robert Cox. “We played good defense against Louisa, couldn’t hit the ball, I knew we had a good defensive team and it was just a matter of getting that one breakthrough hit to get the wheels turning for us.”
The Black Knights’ patience and timely hitting at the plate helped push the Black Knights to the victory, but early on it seemed the game was going to be a pitchers’ duel when John Glasscock for the Flucos and Jeffrey Enoch for the Black Knights threw two scoreless innings to start. Then the Flucos struck in the top of the third, with a two RBI single from Daniel Campbell and an RBI double from Joseph Gomez to give them a 3-0 lead. Glasscock came back out for the third and looked just as dominant, pitching his third perfect inning to start with seven strikeouts.
The game changed completely in the fourth inning. Charlottesville’s Devin Shifflett came out onto the mound that inning and was able to keep the Fluco bats at bay, and then the Black Knights finally got to Glasscock. After a walk, a hit by pitch, and a bunt single, Shifflett got the scoring started with an RBI hit by pitch, and Enoch followed with an RBI walk of his own, followed by another RBI walk by Corey Mills to tie the game at 3. Then a big two RBI single from James Gunter gave the Black Knights a 5-3 lead, and they never relinquished that lead. After getting another run off an error, the Black Knights led 6-3 after a six-run fourth inning. Shifflett clearly wants that to just be the beginning for Charlottesville.
“We’ve gotta work hard at practice, keep on grinding, do everything we can do, hit, pitch, field, everything,” said Shifflett, who had two RBIs on the night and picked up the win in relief.
After that surge, the Black Knights stayed in front, with Benjamin Baumgartner notching the save and finishing off the upset victory.
The Black Knights got two RBI each from Enoch, Shifflett and Gunter while Corey Mills chipped in the other RBI. For Fluvanna, Mason Gross and Joe Gomez each went 2-for-4 with Gomez hitting a pair of doubles while Daniel Campbell had two RBI. Gross and Pierson Bamabei had a double each. Aaron Brown, Gomez and Gross each knocked in a run.
Looking to build on the momentum from this win, the Black Knights will travel to Western Albemarle on Tuesday, while the Flucos will try to regroup when they go to Albemarle the same night.
