By Arthur Halliday / ScrimmagePlay.com contributor
With the way that Albemarle Post 74 has been mowing down opponents as of late, they haven’t needed much help. However, they got just that on Thursday night as they beat Fluvanna Post 2003 on the back of a fistful of fielding, throwing, and baserunning errors for a 13-2 victory to wrap up first place in District 12.
“We capitalized on a lot of their mistakes and then got some runs of our own so that made it a lot easier for us,” said Albemarle coach Mike Maynard. “I thought Chris Madison pitched well. Fluvanna’s got three really good hitters in the middle of that order and if you’re not hitting your spots those balls can be long gone.”
Up 3-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth, Albemarle blew the game wide open. After a 2-run double from Josh Sites, an RBI double from Logan Forloines and a JD Ballard RBI single, Rashad Talley pasted a 3-run dinger over the centerfield fence.
Those were the runs Albemarle had to work for. Before the 7-run fourth, Fluvanna’s defense struggled to make the simple plays, allowing Albemarle to race out to a 3-0 lead after two innings.
“Our starting pitcher (Zack Crawford) only gave up six hits,” said Fluvanna coach Eric Miles. “It seems like we’ll take some innings off and not get after it and it’s killing us.”
Not only were there costly mistakes on defense, but Fluvanna also shot themselves in the foot on the basepaths, getting into a pair of rundowns early in the third and fourth innings.
Madison put in five and two-thirds innings of solid work as he settled in and came away with five strikeouts. Madison worked his way out of trouble as Fluvanna had runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings, but could not bring anyone home.
For Albemarle, Ballard had four RBIs, three of which came from simply putting the ball in play. In the first inning Ballard drove in two on a groundout to short. In his next at-bat, he came through with an RBI fielders choice. He also scored once, leading the way in a strong effort at the plate by Post 74.
“I was just trying to do my best out there — with runners in scoring position you’ve got to come through,” Ballard said. “You just want to put the ball in play, see if (the defense) will make plays for you and bring some runners home.”
Josh Barringer provided the lone runs for Fluvanna on a 2-run blast to leftfield. Ryan Foster was 0-1 but reached base three times on a pair of walks before getting hit by a pitch.
Fluvanna (4-7) will finish a postponed contest with King George Post 89 on Saturday at 6 p.m. with the score tied in the seventh inning, and will follow the game up with a rematch at Fluvanna High School.
Albemarle (16-1) travels to Liberty University today to face Lynchburg Post 16 for a 7 p.m. game.
