With 10 seniors on the roster, fellow Northwestern District rival Brenstville came in Stanardsville in the Region 3B semifinals with no shortage of experience, even with the bulk of its talent having missed out on game play last year. In fact, Monroe’s last playoff loss came at the hands of of the Tigers in 2019 in a 1-run game. Flash forward two years and this game see-sawed back and forth early, and the Dragons threatened for the win in the bottom of the seventh. But with two runners in scoring position, a groundout to third allowed Brentsville to survive as it made the most of just about any free base it was given to rally in the third and fourth to take a solid lead on Monroe and hold on for a 7-5 win and earn a Class 3A tournament bid.
“It’s always going to be such a tough game when we play Monroe,” said Brentsville coach Brian Knight. “Coach Maynard and I talked about it after the first game we played this year. It’s always such a tough game, our place or here. You have to be on your A game. Our season, 6-6, it’s just been so up and down that tonight, or Monday beating Goochland, you just have to get hot at the right time and I think we have these last two games. It’s carried over. We needed all the runs we could get tonight.”
Monroe started out in the hole after Mickey Haynes reached on a single, stole second and was driven in on a single from Jason Boak. Then after a single and a walk a bases loaded walk to Zach Westenhofer made it 2-0.
“Baseball is a weird sport like this, we were on top of the world the way we played defense on Monday and then tonight, we didn’t quite have it, mostly at the beginning and so it’s a humbling sport like that,” said Monroe coach Mike Maynard.
The Dragons loaded the bases in the bottom of the first with two outs and Jared Shifflett got a hold of a pitch an launched it to the warning track in center but Bailey Fox was there to make the play to end the threat.
In the second, Monroe put together a rally with Kaleb Doshier reaching on an error, then stealing second and third before scoring on a wild pitch. Then with a pair of runners in scoring position Chase Mallory delivered a 2-out 2-run single to put his team out in front 3-2 after two.
“We gave them some runs early and they gave us some runs early and really it was about trying to shuffle around pitchers for us to keep us in the game,” Maynard said.
On the flip side, once Brentsville reliever came in, things settled for the visitors as he induced a slurry of ground balls that the defense behind him made hay with.
“That’s Kevin and as a Ferrum commit we know that about him, that he’s going to come in and throw a bunch of strikes and keep our defense ready, not on their heels,” Knight said. “We got a lot of ground balls from him and we’ll take everyone we can get.”
In the third and fourth the Tigers capitalized. Brentsville reclaimed the lead with a 2-run single from John Farrell in the third. Then in the fourth after Haynes reached on a close infield single Brayden Hutchinson launched a 2-run homer to left field. Westenhofer took advantage after a pair of batters were hit by pitches by coming up with a 2-out RBI single but he was caught trying to stretch it into a double to end the top fourth with Brentsville staking a 7-3 advantage.
“Bradyen, that’s his first homerun of his high school career and he’s just a sophomore but he’s a great hitter all year and hitting third tonight,” Knight said. “I’ve been waiting on that for a while. He was a stone faced guy going around the bases but I know inside he’s jumping up and down going nuts to finally get that out of the way.”
With two outs in the sixth, Monroe was able to get Blake Shifflett on base on an error to set up a 2-run homer to right field to cut the deficit to 7-5 and put some energy back in its bats after reliever Kevin Holroyd sat down six straight hitters between the fourth and fifth innings. Then in the bottom of the seventh with three outs to give and two runs needed, the Dragons found some life again. Hayden Gibson got a single with one out. Shifflett wore a pitch on his body to get the tying run on base. After a fielders choice and stolen base by Doshier, Monroe had the tying run in scoring position again. But a ground out to third the Tigers were able to stymie the comeback effort and keep things at 7-5 for good.
“We fought, this team always has fight in it and never gives up,” Maynard said. “Credit the seniors. Runners on second and third with two outs and down two. You’ve still got a chance. It just didn’t work out and that’s baseball again. It’s tough like that.”
For Monroe, the loss is made more difficult as Mallory, Powell, Shifflett, Hayden Gibson and Blaise VanDyke all graduate after not being able to play last spring and join the rest of the Class of 2021 across Virginia who’s varsity high school experience was less than ideal to say the least.
“These are six great seniors and we didn’t know if we’d get baseball this year,” Maynard said. “Short schedule, only district opponents, whatever it was it didn’t matter we were just so happy to be able to play. I feel terrible for the seniors last year that didn’t get this. But honestly, this has been a lot of fun (this spring). 11-3, a good year and the seniors led by example for a team that has a lot of young players coming back.”
The Dragons have 11 on their roster coming back for 2022 and, after this Region 3B semifinal, as a crew that’s been through some real adversity on the field, off the field, you name it.
