Just under two weeks into the Jefferson District the early road to the regular season and first Region II bid now looks to run through Crozet. Early on against Monticello it was a defensive battle, but after Stevie Mangrum cranked out a 2-run shot in the third inning, Western Albemarle did all the little things after that to secure a 7-2 win on the road.
“We did a lot of the little stuff right,” Hudgins said. “This was a game where I thought we played well in all phases. We fielded the ball pretty well and Jack Maynard bulldogged his way through and made some great pitches when we really needed them.”
With two outs in the top of the third Mangrum delivered the first shot across the bow after Josh Gibson reached first on a walk with two out. The Western sophomore then drew first blood with a homer over the left field fence.
“They were mixing it up with fastballs and curveballs and I was just waiting for my pitch,” Mangrum said. “They threw the pitch and I just stayed down on it and it went out. But (those pitches) were definitely hard to pick up.”
After that, Western’s offense went old fashioned and manufactured their runs to proved starting pitcher Jack Maynard all he needed to go the distance.
“I think we had this in us, it was just a matter of breaking through the ice,” Maynard said. “Everyone contributed and hit well and did their part to help us win.”
Maynard was only gotten to twice with Mustangs leadoff hitter Will Decker doing most of the damage. In the bottom of the third, Monticello cut it to a 1-run game with a single from Decker, a sacrifice bunt from Max Mann, a wild pitch and an RBI single from John Page. Western catcher Jacob Rich spared the Warriors from facing a tie by getting the inning ending out at home on Page’s single.
Western padded its lead to 4-1 in the top of the fourth after a leadoff single from Dylan Weiss and a walk to Rich. After a sacrifice bunt from Josh Casteen, John Mark Mastakas picked up an RBI single. That was followed by an RBI sacrifice fly from Maynard.
In the top of the fifth, the Warriors took a six run lead this time with a leadoff walk from Logan Ebanks and single from Eli Sumpter. A sacrifice fly from Rich was followed up by a 2-out single from Casteen. Finally, Mastakas grabbed a second RBI single to make it 7-1.
Decker gave Monticello life in the bottom of the fifth with a 2-out triple. Mann then delivered an RBI single to help close the gap to five, but the rest of the game belonged to Maynard on the mound.
“Those tack on runs were huge,” Hudgins said. “Because if it’s a 3-2 game in the seventh and (Decker) is coming up and we haven’t gotten him out all night, we’re in trouble. In a 7-2 ball game, it’s not a really big deal so those runs were really big. And that’s the way we’ve been up and down our lineup so far.”
The Warriors junior ace had his curve ball working most the night, leading to 10 strikeouts, with six of them coming with a batter looking.
Western (8-1, 3-0) hosts Albemarle at home on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Monticello travels to Fluvanna County on Tuesday at 6 p.m. for a pivotal battle as the Flucos took down Powhatan on Tuesday to help shake things up in the standings further.
