With a storm quickly advancing and making an unlighted field about as dark as it can get, Western Albemarle was surging. Nelson County refused to panic.
What was once a 10-run lead had evaporated after one rally. And another rally late in the seventh with two outs suddenly made what looked like a sure win for the Governors look a bit more murky as the Warriors closed to within three runs. Yet Nelson never lost its cool, some of its key starters on the bench remained supportive, and sure enough, the Governors finished the job with a 15-12 victory.
“We can be a team that hits the ball really well and we’ve got a lot of interchangeable parts,” said Nelson Coach Scott McGarry. “We’re an athletic team right now with a lot of guys with the same build. We can run and I thought we ran the bases well. We’re still feeling things out with our (non-district opponents) but in my time here, we’ve never beaten Western twice and that’s nice because they have a quality program and a great coach. That’s a confidence builder for us.”
After Western took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first, the Governors took over from that point forward until the top of the fourth, scoring the next 11 runs behind a 3-run, first, a 3-run second and 5-run third inning thanks in large part to junior Jacob Goodwin who had a pair of 2-run singles.
“This is my first year on varsity … but they kept giving me fastballs down the middle,” Goodwin said. “All I was trying to do was get a good swing in.”
But after a slow response to a busy first inning, the Warriors made things interesting in the top of the fourth. Behind nine hits with just one out sandwiched inbetween and a streak of seven straight singles, Western put up six runs highlighted by a 2-run single from Jack Maynard. An inning later, Mitchell Parks, who had a whale of a day offensively by going 4 for 5 with four runs, packed in the game’s only home run on a solo shot to make a 4-run game game heading into the bottom of the fifth.
Not to be outdone, Nelson added four more runs to get back in front by seven in the sixth, but once again, the Western bats responded with their backs against the wall in the top of the seventh. The Warriors took advantage of the walks given to them, a trio of hits and pair of throwing errors to scored four runs of its own to get back to within three. With lightning strikes somehow not catching the attention of umpires and daylight dwindling, the Governors finally finished the job, albeit with a pair of runners on base to complete a 2-game sweep of their out-of-district rivals in the Warriors.
For Western coach Skip Hudgins, while there were a handful of errors and his young ever-developing pitching staff took its lumps, the game was an improvement from its last, an 11-run loss to Albemarle with the offense stepping up in a big way.
“Obviously that’s progress offensively, but we’ve got to tighten up on the mound and play better defensively because 12 runs is more than enough to win,” Hudgins said. “And our kids aren’t dummies. They know what we need to fix. When we do make the pitches and the ball is being hit, we’re still kicking it around, so we’ll continue to work on that and making the plays we need to make.”
In addition to Park’s big showing, Scott Wakely and Tanner Knight each finished 2 for 4 with three RBI. Tyler Amato went 3 for 4.
For Nelson, Goodwin lead the way with his 3 for 4 and four RBI showing. Jordan Wooten went 2 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Forrest Lipscomb scored four runs, James Saunders was 2 for 5 with two runs scored and an RBI double.
Nelson (2-0) hosts Buckingham on Friday at 5 p.m.
Westen (0-3) has Covenat at home on Thursday also at 5 p.m.
