For the first half of the game, it was a solid pitcher’s duel with Monticello’s Carter Lee and Louisa County’s John Reynolds both keeping batters off balance. With the game knotted at 1-1 after three innings, the Lions took the lead and tacked on more than enough insurance to give the visitors a 7-1 win.
“It was nice because we struggled to swing the bats last week,” said Louisa coach Kevin Fisher. “The kids come out focused and found a way to get the runs. I think to a degree it was the hits were contagious. Early in the game we had hard hit balls, but they were right at them. We had some good swings and finally things started falling for us. I’ve told the guys all year, we can do this, we just have to swing the bats better than last week.”
Monticello got on board first with an RBI double from Jake Byrnes in the bottom of the second inning, but Louisa responded with a sacrifice fly from Lliam Grubbs in top of the third. From there, the story was about Reynolds and the Lions’ extra base hits.
Reynolds went six innings and struck out three batters. In the fifth and sixth innings he escaped a pair of bases loaded situations, the first with one out, the second with two. In the end he was tagged with just the one earned run and four hits.
“I was just trying to get ahead in the count so I threw a lot of fastballs,” Reynolds said. “Last couple of starts I’ve been struggling a bit so this was a big win tonight. Monticello always gives us trouble, so we’re pretty happy. It’s a big win, especially after getting a walk-off on Friday. We want to keep this thing rolling. You want to play your best ball in May, but why not start now?”
The Lions gave their starter the lead in the top of the fifth when Caleb Agee cranked out a 2-run double. Then in the sixth, Louisa got a 2-run single from Alex Hurley to make it 5-1. Just for added measure as Reynolds worked out of the bottom of the sixth, the Lions tacked on two more runs in the seventh with an RBI double from Jake Talley and an RBI single from Aaron Szlankaweicz.
Louisa (8-4, 3-2 Jefferson District) travel to Albemarle on Thursday. It’ll be the second meeting with the Patriots in six days after the Lions won 3-2 at home this past Friday.
Monticello (6-5, 4-1) suffered its first JD loss and host Western Albemarle on Thursday.
