Photo by Jennifer King
The Lord Botetourt baseball team will get an early start to the district season against a big rival today. The Cavaliers will be in Vinton to take on William Byrd in the Blue Ridge District opener for both at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The Cavs have started off 1-2 in non-district games, all against River Ridge District opponents. They opened with a 4-3 win at Hidden Valley last week as Nolan Medley gave up just one hit in five innings. Nolan struck out nine and walked four before Ethan Deschambault came on and picked up the win with two hitless innings of relief. Medley and JJ Tyree had two hits each for LB and Brayden Well had two runs batted in.
Botetourt hosted Blacksburg for the home opener last Friday and this time the score was reversed, with the visiting Bruins taking a 4-3 win. Caleb O’Quinn got the start on the mound and allowed all four runs, but just two earned, in five innings of work. Cody McConnaughey came on in relief and threw two scoreless innings. Offensively, Noah Donaho went three-for-four with a double and an RBI and Gavin Walker had two hits.
“It was definitely good to get the first win at Hidden Valley but we just made too many mistakes to overcome against Blacksburg,” said LB coach Todd Smith. “We saw some good things in the first week and some things that we certainly need to work on.”
On Monday the Cavaliers played host to Salem and quickly fell behind 7-1. Botetourt cut the lead to 7-5 after five innings, but Salem roughed up some Cavalier relievers and took a 20-5 win. Tyree made his first start on the mound and took the loss while McConnaughey had a double and Deschambault had two runs batted in for LB.
After today’s game with Byrd the Cavaliers will be off until after next week’s spring break. They return April 3 with a rematch against the Spartans at Billy Sample Field in Salem.
