The James River baseball team has three home games this week as the Knights look to snap a five-game losing streak. River was scheduled to host Carroll County on Tuesday followed by a 5 p.m. home game with Patrick Henry on Thursday and a 2 p.m. matinee in Springwood with Waynesboro on Saturday.
The Knights lost back-to-back games at Waynesboro and home against Alleghany on Thursday and Friday of last week to see their losing streak reach five. At Waynesboro the Knights led 2-1 after three and a half innings but the Little Giants scored three in the fourth and two in the fifth to take command.
“This was one where our defense and offense let us down,” said coach Chance Henry. “Waynesboro did a great job of throwing strikes and making our guys hit. We just couldn’t get anything stringed along. Hunter Mays gave us four fantastic innings and really did a good job of keeping us in this game and giving us a chance to win. Hopefully we can break through with the bats soon.”
Jeremiah Mays and Cam Saunders had two hits each to lead the Knights. Jeremiah had two RBIs and Hunter Mays had one. Hunter allowed just one earned run on the mound.
Photos by Leigh Downey
On Friday in Springwood, River jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead but the Cougars chipped away with one in the second and two each in the third and fourth innings of a 5-3 win. The Mays brothers led the attack again at the top of the order as leadoff man Jeremiah had two hits and Hunter, who bats second, had two hits and two RBIs, including a home run.
Kody Park took the loss, giving up four earned runs in three innings.
“Alleghany just outhit us,” said Henry. “We struggled the first time we played them and outside of a first inning home run from Hunter we couldn’t really string anything together. We’re really close to putting it all together.”
