His fastball had enough life that the opposition went back to dugout saying they couldn’t track it. Chris Madison claims he’s not used to having that extra action on his fastball, but that might be the fault of a little time off. Coming off of nearly three weeks rest because of a strained elbow, the Ferrum hurler had heads shaking in awe in both dugouts as he struck out 11 of the 13 batters he faced as Albemarle Post 74 rolled to a 9-1 win over hosting Orange Post 156.
“That was unreal to see,” said Albemarle coach Mike Maynard. “He had us nervous because he hadn’t pitched in a while because of tendonitis. The doctor said he needed seven to 10 days so we gave him 18. Boy, he looked good.”
The former Western Albemarle ace surrendered just one hit and allowed only four total base runners — one coming on an error and two on third strikes swung on in the dirt. During his time on the mound only two balls were hit fairly.
“His fastball had good movement and we tried to change our approach at the plate but he had an answer for everything,” said Orange coach Brian Rasnick. “He was downright dominant. That was impressive.”
With the injury still fresh in his mind, Madison wasn’t too concerned about getting pulled after throwing 59 pitches.
“I felt like I had my stuff today,” Madison said. “Off the injury, it was good to get out there. Sometimes you just luck out. I guess it was just my night.”
Offensively, Albemarle got out to a solid 3-0 start thanks to an RBI double from Danny Morris immediately followed by a 2-run ground rule double from Logan Forloines which was hit all the way up the stairs next to the bathrooms at Porterfield Park.
With the pitching staff on point, that’s wall all Albemarle needed. When Madison left the mound after three innings of work, Columbia bound David Spinosa picked up seamlessly in relief as he struck out six batters in his three innings of work, gave up no hits and allowed just one base runner on an error. He too is gearing up for the postseason.
“I’ve had a chance to rest my arm a bit this summer but at the same time, when I get out there I like to give it 100 percent,” Spinosa said. “The fastballs and the cutters were good tonight. I tried to work in the curve and the change up, but fastballs and cutters were what worked best.”
In the bottom of the fourth Albemarle doubled its lead starting with a 2-out double from Ryan Morris. Morris was moved over to third on a walk and hit batsmen before taking home on a wild pitch. Eli Haden then drove a pair of runs on a hard hit single. In the fifth, Joey Varaksa made it 8-0 on a 2-run single of his own.
After Spinosa burned through his three innings on the mound, Covenant graduate Sean Rutherford took over. The VISAA Division 2 player of the year struck out the side in the seventh, and worked himself in to and out of a jam of the eighth, and then clamped down in the ninth.
“I felt pretty good to start, hitting my spots,” Rutherford said. “I didn’t pitch my best after that. I was just trying to stay focused. It was really tough fight back.”
Before the eighth inning, Orange had just two scoring opportunities — one in the first after Snooter Merryman picked up his teams only hit of the night and was able to work his way to third, and the second coming in the third when Jesse Getchel reached base on a strikeout in the dirt, Andrew Kayliss was hit by a pitch and both stole a base. Neither opportunity yielded results, but in the eighth Orange finally broke up the combined shutout.
A trio of walks followed by an RBI ground out from Kayliss provided Post 156 it’s lone run of the game to make it 8-1. Unfortunately for Orange it was a double play ground out and Rutherford finished the inning with his fourth of five strikeouts to escape relatively unharmed.
Albemarle padded its lead in the top of the ninth on an RBI single from Jake Hendrix, and closed out the game despite a pair of errors in the bottom half of the inning.
Orange had won four straight games to overcome a slow start to the season, but its coach was happy to see his team battling late in the contest.
“Tonight, pretty much every bad thing that could happen to us did — their pitchers were dominant and they hit balls we couldn’t get to — but we stayed in it and it didn’t look like we could do that in the first,” Rasnick said. “On a night like tonight when you strike out 22 times, you can pack it in but we didn’t. I’m happy about that.”
Madison, Spinosa and Rutherford combined for 22 strikeouts. Neither Spinosa nor Rutherford gave up a hit. Albemarle will approach the post season tournament with the same mentality, working pitchers a few innings at a time to keep them both fresh and ready.
“Our approach right now is to make sure our arms are fresh but we’ve got arm strength and that experience,” Maynard said.
Albemarle will host Staunton Post 13 on Monday at 7 p.m.
Orange will also play host on Monday at 7 p.m. and will do so against Fluvanna Post 2003.
