It’s hard to blame Nelson County. Sure, three Gatorade cooler showers is a little excessive (with one apparently for coach Scott McGarry’s birthday) after a Region B quarterfinal. But when you’re in a program that’s been in a playoff victory drought since 1982, you’ve got some catching up to do.
“Just to get that first win, that’s what we’ve been talking about for years,” said McGarry, who was a sophomore on the junior varsity squad during that last regional win.
Nelson beat Altavista, a Dogwood District foe, 9-3 Monday in the quarterfinals and ended the 29-year drought. But outside the well-after-postgame water cooler dumps, you wouldn’t have known the wait had been that long. There wasn’t a wild celebration by the Governors, who’ll face the winner of Page County and Central-Lunenburg in the Region B semifinals Wednesday for the right to play in the state tournament.
“It’s a huge confidence builder, but I think you can tell by the way we responded, it’s not over for us,” McGarry said. “Our guys have sights on continuing this season.”
A six-run third inning ignited Nelson, breaking open a game where the Governors trailed 2-1 going into that frame. Forest Lipscomb got the explosion started by running out an infield hit and reaching on an error, then Jordan Wooten moved him over to third with a single up the middle and advanced to second on the throw. James Saunders’ sacrifice fly plated the first run, and then the runs started piling up. Cleanup hitter Jacob Goodwin then connected on an RBI single and a double by Hunter Werres followed shortly for two RBI and a 5-2 lead. Nelson Gillespe then put together a hustle play, moving from the batter’s box to third on a walk that was complicated by a pair of throwing errors.
“The whole team is hitting the ball, making good plays and just working well as a team,” Goodwin said. “(Gillespe’s) play definitely (energized us).”
Goodwin went 2 for 3 at the plate with a pair of singles. Lipscomb also had a pair of hits and Jordan Wooten went 3-for-4. Wooten also stepped in for starter Trevor Martin, the Governors ace who couldn’t seem to get a close call to go his way throughout his 3.2 innings. Wooten, who enjoyed a five-run lead when he entered fared better, escaping the fourth with a single pitch by inducing a flyout and striking out four while allowing zero runs over his 3.1 innings.
“With Trevor struggling and not able to get the calls that he’s used to getting in terms of where he was locating and laboring out in this heat,” McGarry said. “It was big for us to open the score up some for Wooten to just have some room to work with and have the confidence to just go throw strikes.”
For the Governors though, simply surviving and advancing was the critical part of things, and they did that. Besides, being connected with that bit of undesirable history — a 29-year drought — might not be a bad thing. See, Nelson’s playoff wins may be few and far between, but they can lead to deep runs. That 1982 squad finished the season as the state runner-up.
