Photo by Brian Hoffman
Blacksburg’s Sam Szefc is regarded as one of the top baseball players in the greater Roanoke Valley and Monday night in Daleville he showed why. Szefc was three-for-three at the plate with two home runs and seven runs batted in, including a seventh inning grand slam that gave the Blacksburg Bruins a 12-8 win over host Lord Botetourt.
Szefc hit at two-run homer in the first inning. He doubled and walked twice prior to coming to bat in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded and one out. At that point LB pitcher Brady Kish had nowhere to put him, and the left-handed-hitting Szefc hit an opposite field home run that just cleared the leftfield fence to break an 8-8 tie and win the game for Blacksburg.
“That’s how it is sometimes playing here,” said LB coach Todd Smith, referring to the short leftfield fence on the Cavaliers’ field. “A bloop hit, a couple walks and then a pop-up that barely makes it over the fence. That was a tough loss.”
To that point Botetourt had rallied twice from behind to tie the game. The Cavaliers were down 5-0 before battling back to score five in the bottom of the third inning. Then, they were down 8-5 but put three on the board in the bottom of the sixth to tie it again. It all went from naught when Szefc cleared the bases in the top of the seventh.
Garrett Lonker pitched the first five innings for Botetourt, Swisher Cook worked around three walks for a scoreless sixth and Kish took the loss. Jordan Pennix had three hits for LB and Beau Lonker was two for three.
The non-district loss followed a 14-1 loss to Franklin County last week at home. Botetourt struck early with a Kish home run but it was all downhill from there as Cook took the loss on the mound. Botetourt had just three more hits after Brady’s home run.
The Cavaliers will try to get back on track today when they host William Byrd in the last regular season home game. It will be Senior Night.
The Cavaliers are at William Fleming next Tuesday and will play at Salem next Wednesday, May 13, to make up a game that was rained out last week.
