Facing the defending Bull Run District champions in Strasburg, William Monroe came into its district opener with a lot of respect. Knowing that while many consider the Greene Dragons to be a favorite to take the crown this year, last year’s Jefferson District champion was up against a formidable Rams squad that made the Group A quarterfinals in 2011. Monroe was relatively quiet to start, both in scorebook and in the dugout as Strasburg took an early lead.
But a home run in the third inning from Austin Batten turned the tide. Behind the sophomore’s shot and a large but strange rally in the fourth, the Dragons handled the Rams to establish themselves as the team to beat in their first Bull Run contest with a 14-5 win.
“We fell behind 4-0 but Austin came through with a big shot to give us life,” said Monroe coach Mike Maynard. “They gave us some runs in the fourth, but that’s high school baseball, and I thought we did a good job of putting the ball in play and running the bases.”
Batten came to the plate in the third with his team trailing 4-1 in the third. But thanks to Ryan Leake reaching base on a error and stealing second, then taking third on an errant throw to catch him, the Dragons came to life. With two outs, Batten made it a 1-run game with one stroke. The next inning Monroe went to work.
In the fourth Strasburg committed a critical trio of errors. It began with freshman Keegan Woolford reaching base to lead off the inning on a ground ball miscue. Jack Morris singled to follow and a wild pitch put both runners in scoring position. Jordan Gentry reached first on an error that scored both Woolford and Morris and put the senior on second with the Dragons now up 5-4. Ryan Leake provided an RBI single in the next at bat. Logan Forloines answered with a single, and both Ryan Morris and Batten reached base on walks to make it 7-4. Senior Spencer Breeden took to the plate with the bases loaded and delivered a game changing double that cleared the bases.
“I had a long time to prepare with the pitching change and a lot people came up to me, telling me to sit on the first pitch,” Breeden said. “But the ball looked like a beachball. I had to swing at it and take it the opposite way. I just got lucky.”
Woolford hit an RBI single in the following at bat to make it seven straight batters to reach base without an out. And just like that, Monroe was in command 11-4. That was more than enough for relievers Lamar Neslon and Dustin Knight to work with.
Gentry made his first start for Monroe this year and threw three innings where he struck out seven batters.
“I thought Jordan threw well but was up in the zone just a little,” Maynard said. “His velocity was really good. We let him get to 75 pitches tonight, just a few more than I wanted. We know what he can do — right now it’s just a matter of building his arm strength back up.”
But Strasburg ran up the senior’s pitch count in the first and second innings by reaching one full count after another. While the Rams couldn’t score in the first, they plated four runners in the second. Two walks and a 2-run double with two outs put Strasburg up 2-0 . Two more walks and another 2-run double made it 4-0.
Monroe picked up its first run in the bottom of the second starting with a walk to Batten who promptly stole second. A ground ball out put Batten on third and a balk sent him home. The next inning Monroe’s fifth hitter provided his team with the most explosive hit of the night.
Nelson earned the victory in relief, coming on in the fourth with his team trailing by one. Nelson baffled Strasburg with junk for three innings, giving up just one run, that coming in the top of the fifth on leadoff single followed by a 2-out double.
“I’m an off-speed pitcher and I think I had them off balance tonight,” Nelson said. “I think they were sitting on the fast ball until they got used to my curve… when I went up there I pretended it was 0-0 and just put faith in my defense and tried to throw strikes. (The rally in the fourth) gave me a lot of space to pitch in, so that let me use a lot of my pitches.”
In the fifth and sixth innings Monroe looked to run-rule their opponents. The fifth saw Forloines single, steal second and eventually take home on a wild pitch. Woolford drove in Ryan Morris with two outs to make it 13-5. An RBI double from Leake in the sixth put the Dragons within a run from ending the game early, but Strasburg was able to force one more at bat. A freshman lefty in relief to close the game in the seventh, Knight did just that.
Strasburg starter Tyler Hott threw three and a third innings and struck out seven Monroe batters before coming out in the fourth.
Monroe (5-1, 1-0) hosts Culpeper today at 6 p.m.
