The Lord Botetourt baseball team will open Region 3D play on Friday. At press time the Cavaliers knew when they were going to play, who they were going to play and who was going to start on the mound. They just didn’t know where.
Cavalier ace lefty Nolan Medley will pitch the region opener on Friday against Carroll County, but at press time it was yet to be decided where that game would be. Carroll County had a regular season game with Radford early this week, and the outcome would decide where Friday’s game will be played. If Carroll won it will be in Hillsville, but if Radford won then the game will be in Daleville.
Carroll was favored to win. The Carroll team had a 14-4 record to 5-14 for Radford and Carroll won the first meeting between the two. The second meeting was scheduled for Monday but moved back to Tuesday, after press deadlines, due to Radford having their spring sports banquet on Monday.
“I’m glad they moved it back because now I can go scout,” said LB coach Todd Smith, as he was attending Lord Botetourt’s graduation on Monday.
The Cavaliers come into the region with a 13-7 record. Botetourt last played on Thursday of last week in the Blue Ridge District tournament semifinal. The Cavs dropped an 11-4 game to William Byrd, who went on to beat Northside and win the tournament.
This game was close through five innings. Medley homered in the first inning and LB took a 2-0 lead. Byrd scored three runs in the third to go up 3-2, then put eight on the board in the top of the sixth, highlighted by a Torin Bundy grand slam home run.
The Cavaliers had just three hits for the game and two of them were homers. Medley had two hits and Noah Donaho also had a home run for the Cavs. Caleb O’Quinn took the loss on the mound as LB heads into the region with a fresh staff, having eight days without a game before playing Carroll.
“We’ll have to play our best,” said Smith. “We can beat anybody, but we can get beat by anybody.”
