Colonel baseball edges Musselman in 8 innings

May 3, 2012
By Greg Brill

Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — A forgetful April has turned into a promising May for the James Wood baseball team.

Fresh off a month when they won only two games, the Colonels made it two wins in two nights onWednesday, getting a one-out, two-strike, walk-off, RBI single from senior center fielder Kyle Hevner, to beat Musselman (W.Va.) 3-2 in eight innings at R. Charles Hott Field.

“Just every time there is two strikes on me I just widen-up, choke-up, get on the plate, and just shorten up the swing,” said Hevner, who went 2 for 4 in the win. “I just happened to hit it where it was pitched and hit it outside of the zone. It just happened to drop in fair territory.”

The game-winning hit by Hevner down the right-field line drove Andy Kennedy in from third to lift James Wood to a season-sweep of the Applemen, who came in ranked third in their state’s Group AAA poll.

On March 23, the Colonels picked up a 4-1 win in Bunker Hill.

“We just came out and put the intensity on them,” said Kennedy, who sparked the rally with his leadoff double. “We’re playing with fire under our feet and just doing whatever we can to win.

“Every hit counts, everybody on base counts, and we’re just taking advantage of our opportunities.” Now, following a 7-2 win at Fauquier on Tuesday, James Wood (8-9 overall) is 2-0 in May, as many wins as the Colonels had last month (2-6 in April). Both of those wins came against Northwestern District foe Handley.

A lot of things had to go well for James Wood to extend its win streak to two.

The Colonels sent out freshman Colin Benner and followed him with little-used junior Daniel Malsch to pitch against the potent bats of Musselman (21-9).

The duo had to battle through every inning but the eighth — the only frame the Appleman went down in order.

Benner went five innings and allowed both Musselman runs. Having pitched just five innings before Wednesday, Malsch (1-1) finished up from there and shut down the Applemen over the final three innings.

Benner allowed three hits, but no runs in the first when the inning ended with a double play. He gave up a run in the second, but also stranded two with two ground-ball outs. The right-hander, who had a no-decision, also got a big punch-out in the fifth to end his 80-pitch stint, stranding two more in scoring position.

“Benner has come in and done real well for a freshman,” said Hevner, who recorded three putouts. “He did well against them the first time, so we knew he could do it again. Two runs scored against him, for a team like that? That’s not bad.”

Time and again, Musselman failed to get the clutch hit. The Applemen left nine runners in scoring position in their loss, largely in part because James Wood’s pitchers got help from behind them.

Only three of the 24 outs recorded by the Colonels came via the strikeout. Musselman hit into 12 ground-ball outs, including seven in the first three innings, and James Wood had just one fielding error.

“We had pressure on us early in the game and we kept the runs off the board,” James Wood coach Jared Mounts said. “We got good pitching, good defense, and found a way to manufacture runs. I’m proud of our guys.”

When it was time to hit, James Wood did well to keep the game within reach.

After Musselman took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, the Colonels came back with an unearned run in the bottom half.

Musselman starter Evan Woolum became preoccupied with Scott Zerull after he led off with a walk. First, Woolum threw wide of first trying for a pick-off, and Zerull took second. Woolum tried again to catch Zerull napping, and his throw sailed into center field, allowing Zerull to come all the way around to score to tie the game at 1-1.

Musselman took the lead back in the third, but James Wood tied it in the fourth. On a 3-2 pitch from Woolum, senior designated hitter A. J. Eubank sent a drive to deep left that lifted just over the left-field fence for a leadoff homer to re-tie the game at 2-2.

It was Eubank’s first blast of the season.

Just like the Applemen, the Colonels would put pressure on and get runners in scoring position over the next few innings. James Wood would strand runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth (it had a baserunner nabbed at the plate), and sixth, preventing a win in regulation.

But after Malsch retired Musselman 1-2-3 in the eighth, James Wood executed perfectly in the bottom of the inning to become a winner.

Batting in the nine-hole, Kennedy (2 for 2 with a walk) had already been a tough out for Musselman, and he led off the eighth with a first-pitch slice to left that he got a stand-up double out of.

“I knew I could take that pitch the opposite way,” Kennedy said.

A fly out to right field by Dakota Orndorff moved Kennedy to third, and the Applemen elected to intentionally walk Eubank.

With runners on the corners, the stage was set for Hevner. After falling behind 0-2 in the count to Scott Mock, Hevner drove the next pitch for a line-drive, no-doubt hit down the right-field line to end things.

Now comes the stretch run, and the Colonels, in fourth place in the Northwestern at 3-6, are in hopes of moving past third-place Skyline (4-5 district) and avoid the district play-in game.

A little help from other teams within the district and a win on senior night next Thursday with Skyline might make it happen.

“In the eighth inning we had said, ‘Let’s find a way to win,’ and those guys came up and did it for us,” Mounts said. “Like I said, I couldn’t be prouder of them. We’re trying to get some momentum going late in the season and going into the [district] tournament, and we’ve got three big games coming up. This certainly is a good way to keep the momentum going for us.”