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Western baseball beats Monticello in season opener

Photo by Bart Isley

 

With a strong team offensive effort, Western Albemarle baseball returned to the field and opened the 2021 season with an 11-4 victory over Monticello, ringing up 11 hits in the process. 

 

James Meenan led the offensive assault with a 3-for-3 night with three runs knocked in, including a double for the junior third baseman. Benjamin Winslow also had a big outing as the sophomore went 2-for-4 and scored three times while knocking in a pair of runs. The second RBI came on that triple right in the bottom of the fifth to extend the Western lead to 9-2. 

 

The Warriors took advantage of an early error on a dropped fly ball in left field to draw first blood, taking a 1-0 lead in the opening inning. Andrew Barrese skied the ball to left and raced around the bases on what seemed like a connection destined to be routine pop fly, but a drop allowed him to reach third with two outs. Winslow singled on a line drive back up the middle to make it 1-0 Warriors early. Western scored in every inning it came to the plate and led 6-2 at the end of the third after a four-run effort in the bottom half of the third. 

 

Joey Burch, Winslow and Luke Craytor combined on the mound to get the win for the Warriors. Burch threw two innings while striking out four to start the game, Winslow threw three shutout innings while striking out six and Craytor struck out four in two innings of work while surrendering a pair of runs. 

 

Michael Holzwarth went 2-for-4 on the night at the plate and Crayton scored a pair of runs. 

 

Monticello was plagued by five errors, but got a solid couple of innings from Luke Page on the mound where he struck out three. Cam Critzer went 2-for-3 at the plate and Reese Rogers had a double. Page and Tyler Powell each knocked in a run. 

 

Western gets a few days of practice before hosting Charlottesville Tuesday while Monticello has the Mustangs’ home opener Thursday against Albemarle.

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