Roughing up Monticello is no easy task, but Louisa County went about on an inning-by-inning basis. The Lions only failed to score in the second and seventh innings. Outside of that, the Lions order provided key base hit after another from top to bottom in the order while they kept the Monticello bats mostly quiet after the first inning to pave the way to an 11-4 win on the road.
“We didn’t do this yesterday against Powhatan when we had the chances and so we talked about executing coming into this game,” said Lions coach Kevin Fisher. “Tonight we did. You know when you execute good things happen.”
Just two weeks removed from handing Western Albemarle its first Jefferson District loss, Louisa once again shook up the standings by handing Monticello it’s second JD defeat.
The Lions started out the game with a walk to Derek Hall followed by a single to Cole Hollins. An RBI single from Jake Talley followed by a sacrifice fly from Cole Agee made it 2-0 for the Lions, but Monticello bounced right back in the bottom of the first. Jack Decker and Jon Heuchert hit back-to-back singles with two outs and then Tre Dudley delivered a 2-run double to knot things up at 2-2.
“That’s a really good hitting team,” said Talley, who pitched three innings of relief and earned the save. “We just tried to stay away from them as much as we could and every now and then come up back on their hands but with the way they hit, you have to make sure you just keep them off-balance.”
In the third the Lions broke things open with a 3-run rally. Talley delivered an RBI double while Jordan Sneed came up with a 2-run double two batters later. And from there, Louisa simply nickeled and dimed its way to the win. Talley had another double in the fourth and was scored on a sacrifice fly from Agee.
“It was great to see (the offense) hit the way we did, we’ve been expecting this all year but haven’t necessarily had it,” Talley said. “Tonight we came alive to beat a really good team. It’s a great feeling.”
In the fifth Jordan Spotswood was plated after a walk on a single from Hollins. In the sixth Jacob Peterson singled, then stole second and scored on a passed ball and an error. The Lions wrapped up their scoring in the seventh with Bradon Barlow’s RBI double and a yet another sacrifice from Agee to make it 11-4.
“We’ve shown signs of doing what we did tonight so the hope is that we’ll keep doing that,” Fisher said. “We want to be get consistent at this.”
Monticello made it 5-3 in the third with Heuchert hitting a double and scoring on an error. In the sixth the Mustangs cut it 8-4 when Jack Decker hit an RBI double. However, the Mustangs weren’t able to put together a big inning outside the first as they stranded seven runners in scoring position.
For Louisa, Talley finished 4 for 5 with two doubles and three runs scored. Hollins was 3 for 4 with three runs scored. Agee was 0 for 2 but had three RBI.
For Monticello, both Decker and Heuchert were 2 for 4.
Monticello hosts Fluvanna County on Thursday at 7 p.m. Louisa County hosts Orange at 6 p.m also on Thursday.
