By adding Spotsylvania and Turner Ashby to its schedule this year, William Monroe baseball gave itself about as challenging of an out-of-district schedule as it could. The Dragons avenged a loss to Spotsylvania last month. On Thursday, Monroe avenged its March loss to TA with a 1-0 win at home thanks to a Jonathan Sexton walkoff homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning.
There were just seven hits in the game with the Dragons netting four of them. Monroe’s Reilly Owen picked up a no decision in a five and two-third’s inning effort that saw him strikeout nine batters and give up just three hits. Sal Coyle threw the last one and third and he finished with three strikeouts, no hits, no walks and the win.
Coyle worked out of a jam with runners on second and third in the sixth with his first to keep things scoreless. Owen worked out of a jam in the fifth with runners on first and second, inducing a pop fly to keep TA at bay. He also pitched his way out of a threat in the fourth with runners on first and second with no outs, but a pair of strikeouts and ground out ended that threat.
Base runners were hard to come by for Monroe with Ashby starting pitcher Nic Moyers dealing all night. He gave up four hits, no walks and struck out 14 in the complete game loss.
The hero of the evening, Sexton, led off the seventh by drawing a 2-0 count. He didn’t miss on Moyers’ 84th pitch of the night, sending it out of the park to centerfield to end the game and hand Monroe its fifth straight win.
The Dragons (7-3) are back in action for the third night in a row at home with Manassas Park visiting Friday at 6 p.m.
