Fluvanna County coach Mike Sheridan made no bones about it, he was impressed by the poise of Charlottesville’s youth for making plays as the Black Knights won in dramatic fashion, 3-2.
“You just have to take your hat off to Charlottesville for making every play,” Sheridan said. “They didn’t make any mistakes to let us get ahead. Their starter, that young man did a great job of keeping us off balance and throwing strikes.”
That starter for Charlottesville was Sam Wright and he retired 12 of the first 14 batters he faced in a no decision. He also scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh after reaching base with no outs on a walk. He then advanced to third on two wild pitches before Manning Turkenheimer popped a single into the outfield to provide the walk-off win.
“For our first (Jefferson District) game, this a big win, especially for our young group because they are scrappy and buying into the system and they’ve really worked hard,” said Charlottesville coach Ritchie Williams. “We told them that this work would pay off instead of just walking down and going through practice and goofing around. They don’t do that and we haven’t had this in a while. In the past it was like pulling teeth to get guys to work hard, but not these guys. They do it and I tip my hat to them.”
Charlottesville first got on board in the bottom of the third inning on a 2-out single from Dale Richardson followed by a walk to Wade Kammauff, who then stole second base. A double from Mason Sherry made it 2-0 for the Black Knights.
Fluvanna tied the game up after a double from Jalen Harrison and a single from Cody Herndon. Brock Harris then drove in Harrison on a single and a walk brought home Herndon.
In the top of the seventh, the Flucos threatened with Harris and Johvan Burton each singling with two outs, but Chalottesville pitcher got out of the jam with an inning ending strikeout.
“It was just a well-pitched ball game, but we had too many walks and those came back to haunt us,” Sheridan said.
The bottom half of the inning began with a walk to Wright. With one out and Wright on third after the wild pitches, Turkenheimer came through with the single to bring Wright home and end the game.
“I knew I wasn’t going to get a curveball because the last two bounced (and moved Wright up),” Turkenheimer said. “So I went up there trying to get the last hit. I wanted to end it.”
As for Wright, he spoke well of defense as while the Flucos might have put the ball in play, his pitch location allowed his teammates to make routine plays.
“The defense, it was great to get the pop-ups, the easy outs, those always get you out of innings,” Wright said. “My fastball away and my curveball worked for me today. Got a couple of guys on the curve so I was happy with that.”
When Wright has started the Black Knights have not lost and he currently boasts a 3-0 record.
“He’s not trying to overpower anyone, he just has three good pitches and locates really well,” Williams said. “You play good defense behind that, you’re going to have a good chance to win.”
Haden pitched two innings of relief work, striking out five batters, including the side in the sixth to earn the win.
Fluvanna (6-5, 0-1) jumps back home for a big rivalry game with Louisa County at home at 7 p.m.
Charlottesville (4-5, 1-0) plays out of district today at Albemarle today at 6 p.m.
