Nelson County came out punching and held strong behind its starting pitching. Western Albemarle stood tall behind its starting pitching and defense and waited the bats to come through. Hunter Clements couldn’t have thrown better for the Governors, and Jack Maynard worked his way out of a couple of jams and baffled batters with his curve ball. In the end, it was Western’s Josh Gibson’s fifth inning swing that made the difference as his 2-run shot pushed the Warriors to a 3-1 win.
“Jack really bulldogged his way through on the mound after some control issues early,” said Warriors coach Skip Hudgins. “And then Josh Gibson, he just mashed the ball.”
Nelson drew first blood right out of the gate. Leadoff hitter Zach Harris started the game with a single and the bases were suddenly loaded with one out after Andrew Saunders reached base on interference and Tyler Baker was hit by a pitch. A passed ball allowed Harris score, but the damage was limited with Maynard striking out the next two batters to end the threat.
“We left a couple too many runners on base,” said Nelson coach Scott McGarry. “We had our chances to score some runs but they made the plays or struck us out.”
In the third, the Governors threatened again by loading the bases starting with a leadoff single from Nelson Wooten and Baker getting struck again followed by a walk. With one out Western’s defense came up with arguably the biggest play of the game on a 6-4-3 double play to escape the inning unharmed.
“That was a huge big double with the kids doing a great job to turn it, but Jacob Rich also had a huge block at the plate and all that really saved the day,” Hudgins said.
Offensively, Western got three runners in scoring position, one in the first inning and then two in the fourth, but wasn’t able to plate anyone. That changed with Clements leaving the mound after a 4-inning shutout effort that included six strikeouts and only three hits.
“It was a great outing for Hunter and if this was April or May, he gets to go deeper into the game,” McGarry said. “That was his first deep work this season and I was glad to see what he did.”
Western got on the board in the bottom of the fifth starting with a leadoff double from Dylan Weiss. Having doubled and singled in his previous two at-bats, Gibson went yard his third time up, cranking a 2-run shot over the fence in right field to put Western ahead.
“I got a couple of pitches, took it to a full count and then did what I had to – get the bat on the ball and good things happen,” Gibson said. “They threw a lot of curve balls and off speed stuff to us and it’s the second game of the season so that’s what you see – a lot of spinners. It caught us a bit off guard so hopefully we’ll come out next game ready to hit.”
An Eli Sumpter sacrifice fly made it 3-1 and that was enough for Maynard and then Rich to work with.
After giving up a run in the first, Maynard managed to go six innings and finished with 10 strikeouts to just five hits to earn the win with his breaking ball buckling batters, the right hander’s especially.
“Early on I had good snap and Jacob did a good job behind the plate and then defense too,” Maynard said. “I was trying to make sure they couldn’t get the ball in the outfield, keep it on the ground because I knew we’d make the plays.”
In the top of the seventh Rich came in to pick up the save by striking out three of the four batters he faced.
Nelson (1-2) heads to Parry McLuer on Friday at 5 p.m.
Western (2-0) hosts Spotswood today at 5 p.m.
