By Liz Keller / Scrimmageplay.com contributor
If we have learned anything from history, the Goochland High School baseball team could have plenty to cheer about when returning to Radford University next week.
The Bulldogs’ last region championship came in 2006 — a year the Bulldogs went on to win the Group A crown.
On Friday, Goochland added some hardware to its collection, as it dispatched Madison County 8-0 to claim the Region 2A East title.
The Bulldogs will face John Battle, the Region 2A West runner-up, on Friday in the Group 2A semifinals.
“We’re excited, we’re glad to be back and have a chance at it again,” Goochland coach Wes Farkas said. “This is the first time we’ve won the region since ‘06. We’ve been in this game since then but this is the first time we’ve actually won it, so this is big for us to keep that momentum going. At this point in the week you get to your third, fourth and fifth pitcher and ours was just a little better tonight.”
Junior Tyler Gentry was nearly perfect, as he didn’t allow a hit in seven innings and struck out eight en route to the win.
The Bulldogs capitalized on a couple of miscues in the infield to take a 4-0 lead by the second inning and didn’t look back.
“We beat ourselves today. Hopefully we got it all out of our system today going into next week,” Madison coach David Londrey said. “At this point in the season, teams are going to take advantage of mistakes. They took advantage of every mistake, as they should have.”
Gentry, a right-hander, had good command throughout, walking just one batter. In fact, the Mountaineers threatened just once, in the fourth inning. Isiah Smith reached base on an error and Hunter Smith was hit by a pitch before Gentry struck out two and got Zachary Adams to ground out to shortstop.
“I just tried to throw strikes for my team,” Gentry said. “My curveball [was working] and my slider kept them off-balance. Once I got the early lead, it got my confidence up and I started throwing the pitches I wanted to. It kind of gave me the momentum.”
Gentry also got some support from the defense, including John King, who had a nice snag at third and threw to Tanner Bradshaw for the out at first base. The multi-talented junior also made a nifty, over-the-shoulder sliding catch to end the sixth inning.
“We had that one bobble at first, but the guys are making some good plays and the outfield made all the plays they had to, so I feel really good about our defense,” Farkas said. “Pitching has been solid all year, and now I feel like we’re finally putting together our defense and getting key hits. When we get runners on, we’re finally getting [across], which we hadn’t been doing early in the season.”
The Bulldogs added insurance runs in the third and fifth and tacked on a pair of runs in the sixth as Tyler Ott grounded into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded.
Ott, King, Bradshaw and Jeb Anderson all had base hits in the win.
Goochland, last year’s state runner-up, plays at Radford Friday at 1 p.m. Madison will take on 2A West champion Dan River at 10 a.m.
