It had been at least 22 years since Buckingham County’s baseball program has won a region playoff game.
The wait is over.
“We’ve got a bunch of young guys that just come out here and have fun every day,” said Buckingham coach Trey Lawson. “I’ve been here for five years now and we’ve had some good players, but as a group these guys just enjoy coming to work every day, they enjoy coming to practice and that has kind of helped us turn things around.”
The Knights beat Stonewall Jackson-Quicksburg 3-1 in the Region 2B semifinals to win a region tournament game for the first time since the 1990s.
Buckingham got a sterling complete game effort from freshman pitcher Justin Gunter to get the job done.
“He’s going to be something special for us for the next four years,” Lawson said. “He’s a different breed for sure, he’s always the first one here and the last one to leave — I’m proud of him.”
Gunter struck out four and was efficient, issuing just one walk and a couple of hit by pitches while using just 80 pitches to shut down the Generals.
“He’s been the ace all year, that’s what he does,” said Buckingham’s junior captain Braedyn Schaeffer. “He gave us what we needed and the defense made plays.”
Gunter leaned heavily on an impressive defensive effort while repeatedly inducing groundballs and pop ups. Sophomore centerfielder Cameron Newton’s spectacular catch in the top of the sixth highlighted that effort as Newton sprinted back to his right before hauling in the catch near the warning track. The catch got the Knights out of a potential jam with the go-ahead run at the plate.
“That was huge, he’s always making plays,” Schaeffer said.
Lawson was equally not particularly surprised by Newton’s effort on the play.
“To everybody else that was an amazing grab but I see that kid do that every single day,” Lawson said. “We have really solid outfield play, there aren’t many that get out there with him that scare me much.”
Gunter also helped himself at the plate with a third inning RBI double that put the Knights up 2-0, building on a 1-0 lead built in the first when Stonewall Jackson walked in a run. Gunter added another RBI with a sacrifice fly to center that scored Rocco Raynor after Raynor tripled to leadoff the bottom of the fifth inning. Amari Toney and Colby White also had hits for the Knights, who also drew five walks.
That was enough offense for the Knights with Gunter locked in on the mound and advance Buckingham to the region title game.
“We just come out and play, we know we want to win, and we expect to win,” Schaeffer said. “In the game it just comes out and we have fun.”
Stonewall’s Brayden Hovatter struck out nine in four innings of work for the Generals.