For nearly six innings in the Conference 28 baseball championship game, the normally solid William Monroe offense had been shut down by Brentsville’s Dylan Cooperrider. Cooperrider had allowed one hit through five innings and had made a first-inning run stand up late in the game.
But his Monroe counterpart, junior pitcher R.J. Payne, turned the tables at the plate and on the mound and propelled Monroe to a 2-1 victory, which Timmy Eppard finished with a walk-off single in the seventh inning.
The Tigers seemed poised to add to their razor-thin lead in the top of the sixth, loading the bases with no outs. Consecutive singles by Mason Posey and Lance Keiser put two men on, then a Monroe throwing error allowed pinch-hitter Brooks Knight to reach.
Then Payne took over.
First he got Dylan Carter swinging, then Christian Vollmer looking, and finally Garrett Cornell swinging to ignite a large home crowd that had been searching for something to celebrate with the Dragons down 1-0 much of the game.
“R.J. Payne was incredible. He kept us in the game,” Dragons coach Mike Maynard said. “He threw a great game. Velocity was good. They were a pretty free-swinging bunch, thankfully. Any time you get out of a bases-loaded jam, you think you’re going to win.”
Cooperrider, however, looked as if he would continue to mow down Dragon hitters as he got Tyler Trevillian to pop up to second and followed with a strikeout. But Payne struck again, connecting on the second pitch with two outs and depositing a no-doubter well over the right-field fence, tying the game at one and giving Monroe new life.
“He hit that ball so far, I thought Keegan Woolford had come back,” Maynard said.
Then he came back and retired the Tigers in the top of the seventh, including a pair of strikeouts, to set up his team’s offense to finish the job. Jon Foster started things off with a single to center, just the Dragons’ third hit of the game, and was replaced by pinch runner Tyler Gentry. Gentry was bunted over to second by Charlie Richards. After Cooperrider induced a lazy pop fly to right that was too shallow to let Gentry advance, Eppard came to the plate in search of his first hit of the game.
“It was very nerve-wracking,” Eppard said. “I was thinking opposite field. I’d been ahead of everything all night, and I knew I needed to stay back.”
He left the plate with that under his belt and soon disappeared underneath a crowd of teammates after slapping a cue shot the opposite way, a ball which skittered just under the outstretched mitt of Brentsville second baseman Sammy Beard and into short right field. Cornell’s throw to the plate was right on the money, but Gentry got under the tag of catcher Adam Keiser in a photo-finish moment to give Monroe the win and the conference trophy.
For the game, Payne registered 12 strikeouts and scattered four Tiger hits. Many of his strikeouts came via a filty 12-6 curveball that had Brentsville hitters baffled all night.
“I tried to get ahead with that, as well as get out of innings with it,” Payne said. “(Jonathan Sexton) did a great job catching it behind the plate. He may only be a freshman, but he catches like a senior. He’s crazy good.”
He gave up his only run, which was unearned, in a first inning which could have been worse as the Tigers started the game with back-to-back singles, but Payne managed to mitigate the damage.
Cooperrider fanned six Monroe batters and also had a pair of singles at the plate. He was the only player on either side to register multiple hits.
Monroe will host its first game in regional competition on Monday at 6 p.m. against an opponent to be determined.
