Photo by Brian Hoffman
Lord Botetourt High School will be the site of the Region 3D baseball tournament this week, with the championship game scheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m.
At press time the host Cavaliers were still alive. Tuesday’s semifinal round, in Daleville, had Abingdon and Staunton River playing in the first game and the Lord Botetourt against Christiansburg in the other semifinal. The two finalists will both advance to the Class 3 state tournament next week.
Botetourt made the semifinal by winning at Tunstall last week in the quarterfinal round, 10-7. The Cavaliers came in as the sixth seed in the eight-team tournament and had to travel to third seeded Tunstall, a traditionally strong baseball school. However, LB jumped on the Trojans early, scoring two runs in the first and six in the second for an 8-0 lead.
Meade Mayo’s two-RBI double accounted for the first inning runs. In the second Kyle Arnholt singled in a run and Connor Fuhrman and Colston Powers both hit two-run doubles to power the LB attack.
Tunstall didn’t go away quietly. Trailing 10-2 after four and a half innings, the Trojans plated five runs in the bottom of the fifth to pull to within 10-7. However, Jared Arnholt settled down and pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh to put it away for LB.
Botetourt’s Brae Farrell started the game on the mound and picked up the win. He pitched four complete innings before he was lifted after walking the leadoff batter in the fifth. Brae had six strikeouts and five hits allowed.
With the win the Cavaliers improved their record to 13-8 on the season.
