The night before the game, Fluvanna baseball coach Mike Sheridan ran into Western Albemarle Associate Principle Greg Domecq. After exchanging greetings, Domecq jokingly asked if the Flucos skipper was ready for a 1-run game. The Warriors took the first regular season meeting in 10 innings. Fluvanna took the second by one run. Why would the Jefferson District semifinal match between the two be any different?
“When the two of us get together, It’s just going to be a war,” Sheridan said. “Throw the records out the window.”
The Warriors entered the top of the seventh with a 3-run hole to dig out of. But all of the sudden the game got real interesting as Western scored twice and then put a runner on third with two outs. However, the rally ended right there and the Flucos, who overcame a rough start to the season, walked away at the end of the night with a 4-3 win and a bid in the Region II tournament.
“Tyler Denby, running off the field, ran straight to me,” Sheridan said. “He goes ‘We fought all the way back to regionals, Coach.’ They’re like a bunch of little kids. It means something to them.”
The Flucos jumped out to a three run lead in the first two innings after Denby came up with an RBI double in the bottom of the first, and Christian Hackenburg and Zach Miller drove in a run each in the second.
Chris Madison settled in on the mound for the Warriors from that point forward, and in the fifth inning, after a lead-off double from Cody Davis, Dillon Via put Western on the board with an RBI single.
Fluvanna answered back in the sixth when Hackenburg drove in another run, this time on a double down the first baseline.
“They kept throwing me away,” Hackenburg said. “I just tried to go opposite field and just kept swinging.”
With the pitch count creeping up for Tyler Denby, the Flucos turned the ball over to Ryan Foster in the sixth to close out the game. The senior had no trouble in the sixth, but in the seventh, the Warriors put the pressure on him.
“As a tenth grader he was our closer,” Sheridan said. “And it didn’t matter what the situation was, it’d always get interesting. I’d walk out there and he’d give me that smile and laugh and say, ‘Don’t worry coach, I’ve got them right where I want them.’”
Adam Frazier led the inning off with a double, but the Warriors picked up two outs immediately after. With the season on the line, Noah Carter hit a pitch to the gap for a double that scored Frazier. In the very next at bat, Mitchel Parks drove in Carter on a single up the middle. Parks then stole second and third, but a ground ball hit to Denby, now at third, was picked up and thrown to first to end the game.
“I walked out there (before the last at-bat) and said, ‘What are we back in 10th grade?,’” Sheridan said of his visit with Foster on the mound. “He looked ar me and smiled.”
The loss ends Western’s season two days after they upset third-seeded Goochland on the road. Carter had a huge day at the plate for the Warriors, going 3-3 with two doubles, a single and a walk.
“We’re awfully proud of this group,” said Warriors coach Skip Hudgins. “Our seniors, whether it was guys Dillon Via or Noah Carter, played great and had seasons at the end of the year that we didn’t exactly expect from them when the year began.”
While Carter provided crucial hitting for Western year round, Via was as reliable as the team could have hoped for at the top of the starting rotation averging just a little over half a run per game for an earned run average.
For Fluvanna, Foster reached base in all four plate appearances and had a pair of singles in addition to his timely save.
The Flucos will face Louisa County in the JD championship on Friday at 7 p.m.
