Photo by Leigh Downey
The James River Knights played a non-district game against Riverheads in Staunton Monday and one tough inning spoiled the night. The Gladiators scored all four of their runs in the fourth inning of a 4-1 win.
“This was a decent baseball game except for the fourth inning,” said River coach Chance Henry. “Really one bad error cost us this one. It happens. I tell my guys all the time we need high level catch play, not crazy plays or big swings. Just playing catch in pressure situations. We really shouldn’t have given up any runs.”
River had just two hits, one each by Evan Joyce and Easton Medley. Jeremiah Mays scored River’s only run, which was unearned. Cam Saunders pitched well but the took the loss despite allowing no earned runs in six frames.
Last Friday in Springwood, Carroll County scored six runs in the top of the second inning and rolled to a 14-0 win. River had just two hits again, one each by Levi Peck and Carter Birckhead. Peck, Colt Cook, Ben Lawson and Birckhead all saw time on the mound but couldn’t stop the bleeding.
“This was an ugly game,” said Henry. “Quite a few defensive lapses that don’t show up in the box score caused this one to get out of hand quickly. Carroll is a legit program, they always have been and probably will be for the foreseeable future. You can’t give elite teams like that extra outs to play with or you’re setting yourself up for trouble.”
Friday’s loss followed back-to-back wins on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. The Knights beat Patrick County in a district game in Springwood, 6-1, behind a five-hit, seven-strikeout game by Saunders.
“This game was all about Cam Saunders on the mound,” said Henry. “This was definitely a career night for him pitching. He made an adjustment between this start and his previous one and credit to him for making it quickly because it really did him well. He had some extra juice on his fastball which also gave him more snap to his breaking ball. He was fantastic and stayed in attack mode all night, only walking two batters.”
A night later the Knights hosted Class 5 Patrick Henry and took a 2-1 win. Joyce pitched six shutout innings before Peck got the final two outs in the seventh for a save. Mays and Byers had two hits each.
“It’s always great to win on Senior Night,” said Henry. “It means even more when it gives us a huge boost in our region standings. Evan Joyce threw great, giving us back-to-back high level starts.”
The Knights were 5-8 overall and 2-3 in the Three Rivers District pending a trip to Radford Tuesday. Then, they don’t play again until May 5 at home against Glenvar.
