Forget that Brentsville — the second place finisher in the Evergreen District — came into the Region II tournament with a losing record, almost every player on the Tigers roster was a giant and could mash the baseball, and starting pitcher Conner Murphy and reliever Mason Clark could throw. William Monroe’s won a lot more games by slaughter rule this season than by one run, much less in extra innings, but against Brentsville that’s what it took — a walkoff single from Ryan Leake in the bottom of the eighth with the scored tied to put the Dragons one win away from a Group AA berth thanks to this 4-3 victory.
“This is unbelievable, I don’t even know what to say,” said Monroe coach Mike Maynard. “Ryan Leake just domilished that ball.”
Ryan Morris got the winning rally started in the eighth when he was able to extend his bat on an outside pitch in pitcher’s count.
“It all started out yesterday,” Morris said. “Me and my dad went down in the cage and worked on hitting curve balls to the right side and today I got a few fastballs but got the curve balls just came to me and I turned on them.”
Sure enough, Morris’ eighth inning single was dropped into the outfield on a curveball thrown in a 1-2 count. From there Austin Batten was able to lay down a sacrifice bunt and put Morris in scoring position. Cody Thacker came up to the plate and although he was 0 for 3, he had hit two balls for hard outs in centerfield previously. Brentsville chose to put Thacker on first intentionally to face Leake, who was also 0-3 but with an infield fly, strikeout and groundout to short.
“I was 0 for 3 and they just thought I was going to hit a little ground ball and they were going to turn two,” Leake said. “I knew I had to come through with a good shot, just get one run in. I watched the ball come hit the bat.”
He made them pay. Leake pulled a shot deep to left field and Morris didn’t have any trouble rounding third and stepping on home plate.
But before the big rally in the eighth, Jordan Gentry supplied Monroe with exactly what it needed, shutout innings. Gentry came in relief in the fifth inning with the game tied at 3-3. He retired the first four batters he faced and 11 of the total 13 he saw, striking out three batters and putting out two runners himself.
“Jordan was incredible,” Maynard said. “He kept them from scoring in four innings but we couldn’t score either.”
Logan Forloines started the game for the Dragons and only gave up one run in his three innings of work when he hit a batter in the top of the second and had a throwing error to follow and allowing Brentsville to drive in the first run of the game on a ground ball to shortstop.
Monroe tied the game up in the second with two outs thanks to a pair of singles from Morris and Batten and then an RBI single from Duprey that was chopped over the infield. An inning later a pair of walks followed by an RBI single from Batten made it 2-1 for Monroe.
The Tigers claimed a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth on a double from Mike Lennox, an RBI on an error to KC Willard, another double from Tommy Hurt and an RBI single from Josh Jenkins.
Unwilling to allow Brentsville to pull away, Monroe struck right back when Duprey was walked and stole second. The Dragons got a welcome unearned run when Gentry reached first on a throwing error, which let Duprey take home from second. From that point on, it was shutout baseball with neither team budging until the bottom of the eighth.
For Monroe, Morris and Batten were the only two players with multiple hit nights. Batten was 2 for 2 with a walk. Morris was 2 for 3 with two singles and a walk.
Monroe took great advantage of Porterfield Park’s deep outfields, particularly in the first three innings when Brentsville hit five hard fly balls to center or left field, all of which were successfully fielded by Jack Morris or Jacob Hirtz.
Granted they’ve only lost once all year, but whenever Monroe plays at Porterfield something good seems to happen — an extra inning win over Goochland, a Jefferson District semifinal shutout of Western Albemarle, a JD title victory over Monticello. Maybe it’s Maynard’s luck as the last two summers his American Legion Albemarle Post 74 has won a pair of District 13 championships, yes, both at Porterfield.
The good news for Monroe is that if there is some charm they’ve found in Orange, they’ll get one more crack at channeling it.
“We get to play another game and that’s a big deal for this program,” Maynard said. “We’ve got to find out how in the world we’re going to beat Potomac Falls now.”
The Dragons play Potomac Falls at Porterfield on Thursday at 6 p.m.
