Having fallen for just second time this summer after accumulating a 10-run lead against Spotsylvania on the road to pick things up after a five day rest, Albemarle Post 74 coach Mike Maynard was hoping that his team wound get back into the form it had prior to back.
With a 14-4 win over a talented Courtland Post 55 squad on Wednesday night in seven innings, Albemarle quickly shook off the memory of Tuesday as they rode a big first inning, a fistful of home runs later and an outstanding starting pitching performance from former Western Albemarle standout Dillon Via.
“Tuesday was a tough night, a tough way to lose but I thought we came back and showed a lot of heart tonight,” Maynard said. “This was a good win for us and Dillon threw great and had a lot of late movement on his fastball that got us a lot of groundballs.
In five innings of work Via struck out five batters and surrendered no runs.
“I wanted to get ahead in the count and keep my pitch count low,” Via said. “My curveball was working really well and then I was able to locate my fastball. I know (my team) is going to field behind me and I know they’re going to give me runs, so I just have to go out and do my job.”
When Via took the mound in the second inning he had a 5-0 lead to work with as his teammates provided him with plenty of offense in the bottom of the first. The quick start began with Danny Morris getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. That was followed by a 2-run single from Ryan Morris and then a 2-run double from David Spinosa.
In the third Morris came through again, this time with an RBI double.
“I just keep working in the cage, working on keeping my head down and driving on the ball,” Morris said. “They kept throwing it were I could hit it so I took it advantage of that.”
It was 7-0 moments later thanks to Sean Rutherford who also cranked an RBI double.
Post 74 went to the long ball after that to get up by double digits. In the fifth inning, Logan Forloines hit the first of his two solo-homeruns. The William Monroe rising senior was sporting a cage to protect his eye after getting hit by a pitch on Tuesday. That’s hardware in addition to the brace he already sports on his hand after breaking his wrist at the end of the high school season.
“With that mask I was still able to see the ball which was great — I was glad my vision wasn’t messed up,” Forloines said. “Last night was a bit of a fluke for us. We’re used to going out and playing hard and winning. Everyone was hitting tonight. We really pounded out the hits.”
Jordan Gentry, the team’s speedy leadoff and self described bunt fanatic, provided the biggest hit of the night, knocking a pitch over the right field fence with a pair of runners on.
“Logan told me that (the pitch I’d see) was good,” Gentry said. “So I sat back for the first time in my life.”
The heavy hitting continued in the bottom of the sixth, again with solo shot from Forloines and then a 2-run blast from Thomas Stallings. That setup one more half inning for the finish.
Courtland managed to make it interesting after a few miscues in the top of seventh. Post 55 rallied for 4 runs including a 2-out, 2-run double. Reliever Jake Hendrix, who threw a scoreless sixth, prevented Courtland from getting any more outs to work with by striking out the last batter of the inning to force a slaughter rule victory.
Albemarle (17-2) is back in action today against Fluvanna Post 2003 at 7 p.m. at Fluvanna County High.
