Western Albemarle’s road win in extra innings with Fluvanna County Tuesday was a big one for the Warriors, but Thursday’s performance made the week even better. With a 3-0 shutout over Monticello, also on the road, the victory sent the Warriors into their spring break on a four-game winning streak.
“It’s a long season before you get to the playoffs, but this is a really good start,” said Western coach Skip Hudgins. “And tonight, I think that’s going to be the story of the Jefferson District — a lot of good pitching and close games. Everybody’s got some pitching.”
It was the third-straight game that the Warriors pitching staff held a team to less than two runs and the second shutout in three games. Against a tough Monticello lineup, junior Luke Tenuta picked up the win on the mound with his five scoreless innings. But on top of that he also played a big role at the plate driving in a pair of runs.
“Luke has really come around this year and turned into the baseball player we thought he could be,” Hudgins said.
The Warriors jumped on the Mustangs early. After Derek Domecq led the game of with a single, he then reached second on an error and followed it up by stealing third. That set up an RBI single from Tenuta. Sam James then made it 2-0 with an RBI fielder’s choice.
“It went good,” Tenuta said. “We swung the bat well, played some defense and overall got it done. It was very important that we came out early and swung the bat well.”
Tenuta ran into a little bit of trouble in the second when Tommy Carter singled with a runner on second but Domecq picked up an assist on his throw to catcher Ryan Sukovich to get the inning ending out at the plate. From there, Tenuta cruised and finished with five strikeouts, just one walk and two hits before handing the ball off to Jack Masloff in relief. Masloff struck out the side in the sixth before picking up the save in the seventh with a pair of groundouts and a pop fly.
Monticello’s defense had their own defensive play at the plate in the fifth when the Mustangs caught a runner at home after a Sukovich double with Kevin Jarrell gunning down the run with his throw to Will Pistulka. However, on the next play, Tenuta came up with an RBI single to make it 3-0.
For the Mustangs, Jake Byrnes threw five innings and got into a groove between the second and fifth innings. He struck out two batters and walked just two on the night. Jarrell and Carter each threw a shutout inning of relief.
“I thought Jake did a good job and pitched his tail off, but unfortunately we compounded some mistakes together and statistics show that you’ll give up a hit an inning,” said Monticello coach Corey Hunt. “So when you compound those mistakes with hits, in high school baseball it’s going to come back and haunt you. That was the first inning but he settled and started throwing a lot of strikes. I thought the defense settled in too and played well afterwards. It was just a good high school game.”
The Warriors (5-1, 3-0) get a week off before jumping back into JD play on April 11 with another road trip, this one to Albemarle. The Mustangs (3-1, 1-1) head to Myrtle Beach, SC for their annual Ripken Experience Spring Break Tournament starting on Tuesday.
“Every game right now is a learning experience and we got to see some really good pitching from Luke and Jack,” Hunt said. “We’re going to see quality arms day-in and day-out and so every game we have until the postseason is a learning opportunity. We need to understand what we’re going well, not doing well and then put it all together.”
