After four innings Goochland was facing a 4-run deficit and had just two hits of its own. Two innings later the Bulldogs were in firm command in the James River District championship against Randolph Henry. Thanks to a double and five singles in the fifth and then two doubles, two singles and a walk in the sixth, the regular season champions made it a clean sweep of the JR to secure the second seed in next week’s Region B tournament with an 8-4 victory.
“Most baseball teams, you go with the bats,” said Goochland coach Wes Farkas. “It was a slow start and while Josh Driver pitched really well, we had a couple of mistakes. But I knew once we got rolling that our guys, like they’ve done all year, they were going to come through in the moment. We did and strung it together and snowballed them.”
Randolph Henry got on board first in the second thanks to error, a single and an RBI ground out from Jackson Knott. Two innings later the Statesmen went up 4-0 on a single, an error in the outfield, another single and an RBI single from Sam Back.
But when Cody Johnson came through with a double with one out, the Bulldogs came to life. Cole Starks put Goochland on the board with an RBI single. After a pop fly, Alex McDowell, Forrest Witt, Scott Pearce and Trace Nixon all provided two out singles that plated four runners.
Down to their last six outs, the Bulldogs put together another rally. This time Johnson started the inning by reaching base on an error. A walk to Starks set the table for Chase Brookman who came through with what was the game winning hit, an RBI single through the infield. Starks scored on a wild pitch and then Brookman was able to score on a single from Witt. Pearce provided one last piece of insurance with an RBI double.
“We just got on a roll,” Pearce said. “We’re a close knit group. We’ve played together for a lot of years, most of us have played football together too. We just click and it makes it easy… When we got two runs on the board I think we knew (what was going to happen).”
The Bulldogs didn’t need their last six outs. While starter Josh Driver gave up just one earned run as the starter in a no decision, Austin Goyne came on in relief and kept Randolph Henry off the board to earn the win. Joe Cutchins handled the seventh. The Statesmen had just three hits on the evening.
Goochland moves on to the Region B tournament on Monday where it will host seventh seeded Chatham out of the Dogwood District at 5 p.m.
“We were really the only team playing for seeding tonight because pretty much everything else was determined,” Farkas said. “We matchup with a hard throwing Chatham team so we’re going to have come ready to play.”
