A stranger finish to a baseball game you’d be hard pressed to find. With the game tied going into the bottom of the seventh, William Monroe worked Charlie Richards around all four bases. There was no hit. There were no errors. The ball was never even hit into play in the seventh as both outs came via strikeouts. Two walks followed by back-to-back balks with a full count. That’s how the Region 3A East quarterfinal between the Dragons and Hopewell was decided with Monroe getting the edge 5-4 in walkoff fashion.
“The goal was just trying to get base runners on and being patient,” said Dragons coach Mike Maynard. “Charlie Richards got on for us, and I guess the rest is history. (Balks) are part of the game I guess, that’s a tough one, I almost feel bad for them. That’s a tough way to lose. But we’ll take it.”
The Dragons gave up three unearned runs and were trailing 4-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth. After a leadoff single by Timothy Eppard and a walk to Anthony Pritchett, Monroe’s R.J. Payne came up with two outs and delivered a double to center that was just shy by an inch or two of clearing the park. The ball hit the top of the fence and stayed in play, allowing both runners on base to score and even the game up at 4-4.
“It was an insane game and I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to come through, but all the coaches have been telling me to stay back and wait for a couple of pitches,” Payne said. “I tried to stay back, saw a few pitches and then tried to drive the ball on a ball that I thought I could.”
After a leadoff single to start the game, a sacrifice bunt, wild pitch and RBI single from Roman Acord put the Blue Devils up 1-0. Monroe answered with a pair of runs when Pritchett led off and got on an error and then got an RBI single from Dylan Shifflett. Shifflett scored from third after an error with the bases loaded.
However, Monroe returned the favor. In the third the Dragons had a pair of errors that allowed the Blue Devils to even things up at 2-2. Then with runners on the corners in the fourth, an error allowed Hopewell to take a 3-2 lead. In the fifth, a single from Ricky Jongs, an error and an RBI double from Acord put the game at 4-2.
“We probably played the worst we have in a while and I don’t know if it was the long weekend or whatever, but we have to take care of the mental focus or you’re not going to keep winning,” Maynard said. “We made some errors that we never make, that’s not our baseball. So we want to get back to that.”
The Dragons stranded runners in scoring position in all six innings, but after Payne’s big hit, Monroe got a chance to change things in the seventh. The peculiar finish began with Richard’s getting a 1-out walk. Then Cody Spencer drew a walk. After a strikeout, Jonathan Sexton came to the plate and was sitting on a full count. Cameron Hill, who came on for Acord in relief was called for a balk on the ensuing deliver to put the go-ahead run at third. In Hill’s next delivery, he paused again and the game was over.
“I’ve seen one game end like that in a JV game earlier this year, but I’ve never seen two balks in a row,” Payne said. “That’s was crazy.”
Spencer Eldridge and Brian Bohlm each threw two innings. Cody Spencer threw three innings and struck out five batters.
The win sets up Payne for Monroe’s next start. The Dragons will play either Tabb or Colonial Heights on Wednesday in the region semifinals with a Group 3A bid on the line. It would be the first state tournament bid since 2013.
