By Liz Keller / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
GOOCHLAND — Western Albemarle picked the right time to play its best baseball of the season.
The Warriors got a solid pitching performance from Dillon Via, had timely hits and made clutch defensive plays en route to a 4-3 victory over No. 3 seed Goochland in the quarterfinals of the Jefferson District tournament on Monday.
Western, the No. 6 seed, advances to the semifinals on Wednesday against Fluvanna County, which beat Monticello in the first round.
“We’ve been looking real good the last few games and practices and I think we felt pretty good about our chances,” said Via, who boasted a 0.51 ERA entering the contest. “We played really well and it just came together.”
The visitors held a 2-0 advantage until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Goochland’s bats came alive.
Leadoff batter Scott Ragland reached base on an error and Colby Carter belted a triple to right field to send in the team’s first run. Ben Verlander’s sacrifice fly to center field allowed Carter to tie the game.
Western’s defense clamped down in the sixth inning as Via retired three straight batters. Lonnie Johnson grounded out to third base, then Cody Davis made a beautiful diving catch in left field on a well-hit ball by Ben Swecker and Via struck out Kyle Tormey to end the inning.
The Warriors (7-8) carried that momentum into the seventh, where they scored two runs on two outs. Cleanup batter Adam Frazier (2 for 3, RBI) drew a walk and Nick Kuzjak ripped a double to left field to score pinch-runner Alex DeJong. Then Via reached base on an infield error allowing Kuzjak to score.
Goochland (8-7) didn’t go quietly, however, using a two-out rally of its own to climb back into it. Matthew Henley reached base on an error to lead off the inning. Via got the next two batters out before Verlander, the Bulldogs’ starting pitcher, hit a single to left field to score Henley. Goochland appeared poised to do more damage as Austin Jordan got on with a base hit, but Via forced Alec Moore to fly out to center to end the game.
“It is a good win against a good team. We pride ourselves at Western on playing our best baseball at the end of the year, and I think we turned into a pretty good little team,” Western coach Skip Hudgins said. “We’ve tightened up significantly defensively. Scott Wakley, who was supposed to be our shortstop all year got hurt in February, so he’s only been our shortstop the last five games and that’s been a big difference. It’s allowed us to move people into different places where they’re more comfortable.”
Via relied on his curveball and fastball to shut out Goochland over the first four innings. The senior right-hander scattered four hits over seven innings and recorded seven strikeouts to pick up the win.
“He’s their ace and we knew this game was a must-win,” Goochland coach Wes Farkas said. “They threw their best, we threw ours and they scored one more run than we did. We took advantage of their errors and they took advantage of ours. At this level you can’t afford those mistakes.”
For district newcomer Goochland and its nine seniors it was a disappointing way to end the year. The Bulldogs swept the Warriors in the regular season and started out 4-0 in district play.
“We’ve had four tough losses to finish, and that’s never how you want to finish the season, especially with this group of guys,” Farkas added. “We’ve got some seniors that we will miss and you always want the best for them. I’ve had a lot of these guys starting since they were sophomores, so it’s going to be some big shoes to fill. They just never give up, they’ve got a lot of fight and that will be missed. To compete as well as we did with the district change, we’ve got to hang our hat on that.”
