James River will be the home team as the Knights try to earn a split in their intra-county baseball series with Lord Botetourt today. The Cavs won the first meeting in Daleville.

Both teams have had busy schedules since returning from spring break. The Knights had three games last week and were scheduled to host Radford on Tuesday of this week prior to the LB game.

River started off last week with a 4-0 shutout win over Giles. Jake Braun got the win on the mound, pitching five innings of one-hit ball. He allowed no walks and struck out eight before Kavin Vest and Dyllan McAllister pitched one inning each to close out the win. Offensively, Vest was two-for-three and drove in a run and Coulter Hodges was two-for-two.

On Wednesday of last week the Knights dropped a 14-4 decision at Riverheads. Kevin Theimer pitched the first three innings and took the loss. Gabe Sebastino, Dalton Harper and McAllilster pitched one inning each.

“We were in the game into the fourth inning (trailing5-4) and then the wheels fell off,” said River coach Harry Falls.

On Thursday, River lost a disappointing game to Alleghany in Low Moor, 8-7. The Knights led all the way until Alleghany scored three times in the bottom of the seventh for a walk-off win.

Hodges pitched the first five innings and left with the lead, striking out nine. Vest pitched two-thirds of an inning and Andrew Bridges allowed three runs and took the loss. Alleghany scored the winning run on a bloop hit down the leftfield line.

Hodges had a big day at the plate as well. Coulter was three-for-four with a home run and drove in four runs.

The loss dropped River to 3-5 overall.

“If we can play and battle the rest of season like did against Alleghany and Staunton River we are going to be successful,” said Falls.

Lord Botetourt is 6-3 overall after winning two of three in the past week. The Cavaliers beat William Byrd, 5-2, last week as Hunter Duke pitched a complete game for the win. Duke allowed five hits and walked none, getting the job done on 69 pitches. Dylan Fralin and Meade Mayo had two hits each and Logan Wood had two runs batted in.

On Friday, the Cavaliers played host to Staunton River and dropped a 9-6 decision. Patrick Kepler, Ramsey Vassar, Ryan Spangler and Caleb Franklin all pitched for the Cavs, who never led after falling behind early.

“We got in a hole early,” said LB coach Todd Smith. “We kept fighting back but we never could catch them.”

Botetourt had 14 hits, including a four-for-four day from Franklin. Caleb is now hitting .593 on the season. Kepler, Duke and Drew Bond had two hits each.

On Monday of this week, the Cavs bounced back with a 10-0 win over Patrick Henry on a cold day in Roanoke. Nick Lancaster had a complete game three-hitter on 65 pitches. Franklin had a double and three runs batted in and Duke had two more hits for LB.

After today’s intra-county game, both teams are scheduled to be back in action Friday. LB will host Northside and James River is at Floyd County, as both local schools play district opponents.