Albemarle’s non-district counterparts can rest easy. From here on out, it’s Commonwealth District opponents for the Patriots after Albemarle took down Charlottesville in five innings behind a patient day at the plate with a 12-1 win.
“It took us a little while to go the other way, but after that I think we concentrated a little better,” said Albemarle coach Jimmy Bibb. “Sometimes you get in there react instead of being patient and taking the ball the other way. You try to jump out of your shoes and make some mistakes. For the most part (this year) we’ve done a good job at that and so now we’re 8-2 and that’s nothing to sneeze at.”
The victory completes a non-district sweep for the Patriots as they came out victorious against Monticello, William Monroe, Western Albemarle and now Charlottesville.
On Tuesday evening coming off its spring break, Albemarle wasted little time in getting rolling. The Black Knights put their lone run on the board in the first thanks to an Eli Haden single, stolen base and back-to-back singles from Dale Richardson and Manning Turkenheimer. After that, Patriots starter Austin Turner settling in and watched his offense go to work.
“I love being on the mound, and coming off a great week off, I’d be out there every day if the coaches would let me,” Turner said. “In the first inning I didn’t have the grip right on my curveball, but it worked after that and my fastball, I was able to really locate that everywhere in the second and third and I also picked up more velocity on it.”
The Bottom of the first featured four consecutive base hits and a walk including an RBI double from Timmy Aker and an RBI single from Joe Burris. A sacrifice fly from Kyle Ripley and RBI single from Benny Baranik made 4-1 for Albemarle.
“We had hit a pretty good groove,” Aker said. “We just turned it on and it worked out. We just needed to hit the ball and play defense. We been struggling to hit coming into today, but we picked that up.”
The Patriots plated four more runners with the highlight coming with a 3-run double from Burris. The third led to three more runs with Charlottesville struggling to field, a night after playing solid defense in a win over Fluvanna County the night before. Albemarle added its 12th run in the fourth to set up an early finish in the fifth.
In relief of Turner, Zach Evans took down the side in the fourth to set up Carneal in the fifth. The senior ended the game with a strikeout with runners on first and second.
On the night, Burris finished 2 for 3 with five RBI while Aker went 3 for 3 with a pair of RBI. Leadoff hitter Jacob Borenstein scored three runs. Seven different Patriots recorded a base hit.
For Charlottesville, Haden and Richardson were each 2 for 3.
The Black Knights (4-6) finish a wild week with their third game in five days against Western Albemarle on Friday at 6 p.m.
Albemarle (8-2) heads back into CD play with a home game against Orange County on Friday at 6 p.m. as well.
