For video of Logan Forloines’ third inning home run, click here.
It’s only the first week of the season, but William Monroe likely has already faced the best arm it’ll see all season. The Dragons had the task of going up against University of Virginia commit Austin Nicely. Monroe wasn’t able to saddle the hard throwing lefty with a loss, but it did the next best thing it could by jettisoning Nicely from the game when he reached his pitch count early in the fourth inning. And against the Trailblazers’ bullpen, Monroe’s offense came through with a slew of clutch hits to roll the team to a 13-5 win in the first home game in Stanardsville since 2010.
“We got rolling and I thought we threw the ball well,” said Dragons coach Mike Maynard. “It’s always good to get a win, but against that team it’s even better because they’re going to win a lot of games with that pitching staff.”
Monroe’s Austin Batten had a huge game, going 3 for 3 with four RBI and three runs scored. The sophomore drew a walk with the bases loaded in the first to even the score at 1-1 after Spotswood scored in the top half of the inning on a double-steal with runners on the corner and an errant throw to second. The first two innings, the Dragons drew full counts in almost every at bat, putting Nicely over 50 pitches heading into the third. Nonetheless, Nicely struck out six batters in that span.
To leadoff the third, Logan Forloines hit the team’s first homerun in its new stadium to give Monroe a 2-1 lead. Ryan Morris and Batten followed that up with back-to-back doubles.
“I was waiting for my pitch, one down the middle,” Batten said. “He was a little wild at first but (Nicely) was throwing gas. But at 2-0 I knew that the fastball was coming.”
Two batters later, freshman Keegan Woolford delivered an RBI single to make it 4-1.
Spotswood caught back up in the fourth on a pair of errors. Walk, sacrifice bunt, another walk, and another sacrifice bunt put two runners in scoring position with two outs. Then back-to-back errors allowed the Trailblazers to tie the game.
With the game tied at 4-4, Monroe broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double from Jordan Gentry, a 2-run single from Batten, a squeeze bunt from Ryan Leake and another RBI single from Woolford. The Dragons came just one hit away from run-ruling the Trailblazers in the bottom of the sixth. Monroe picked up a sacrifice from Lamar Nelson with the bases loaded and grabbed two more runs in the next at-bat on a single from Jacob Hirtz.
“It’s great hitting (in this lineup),” Batten said. There are always runners on base so you’re always facing a pitcher that’s throwing from the stretch.”
An RBI groundout from Forloines pushed the score to 13-4 with two outs, but Spotswood held on to earn one last turn at the plate.
The Trailblazers picked up a homerun in the top of the seventh, but were unable to put together the rally it needed.
For Monroe, Ryan Morris threw three and a third innings and gave up no earned runs. Lamar Nelson threw two and two thirds shutout innings of relief work and picked up the win.
Spotswood (1-1) plays Monticello (0-2) today at 5 p.m. in Stanardsville.
Monroe (2-0) hosts Albemarle (1-1) at 7:30 p.m.
