No Excuses For Wood Baseball In 7-3 Loss To Raiders

Posted: April 4, 2013
By GREG BRILL
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — They could blame it on rust. They could blame it on the ever-present cold weather. They could blame it on lack of inspiration playing a non-district opponent.

But James Wood’s baseball team didn’t want to offer up any excuses after it played with little life in a 7-3 loss to Loudoun County on Wednesday night at R. Charles Hott Field.

The Colonels (2-4) could likely get a pass if they wanted to use not having played for nearly two weeks — a 10-1 Northwestern District loss to Sherando on March 22 was their most recent game — as the culprit for all their shortcomings against the Raiders (also 2-4), who were coming off a 7-5 loss on Tuesday to Dulles District rival Tuscarora.

Instead, James Wood assistant coach Zach Stiles withheld the excuse card and summed up how things played out for the Colonels in just a few words.

“There’s no excuse for the way we played tonight,” said Stiles, who said the team had plenty of practice time over the last few days to prepare for Loudoun County and the start of a three-game week. “They had more fire in them than us tonight pretty much. That’s the way I see it. We didn’t come out ready to play, and they did.”

And after watching his first two pitchers struggle to get key outs and an offense that produced just four hits, Stiles knows James Wood will need some urgency, and fast. The Colonels travel to Skyline tonight and host Millbrook in a makeup-game on Friday in a pair of Northwestern District outings.

“We’ve got two big district games coming up [today] and Friday and I hope these guys come out with a better mentality,” Stiles said. “You’ve got to come out with the mentality wanting to play baseball and wanting to win the game.”

For first-year Loudoun County coach Nick Price, he was just glad to win. The Raiders had not won since beating Millbrook in their season-opener, but plenty of successful opportunities at the plate and an extended effort on the mound from senior Ryan Kranenberg provided just the right formula to end a four-game losing streak.

After leaving the bases loaded and going scoreless in the first inning, the Raiders scored at least one run in each of the next four innings and had at least one base runner reach in each inning.

When it got on, Loudoun County moved runners well, whether it be from stealing bases or from getting clutch hits up and down its lineup. And for a team that has struggled to score, a productive night on the road was a welcome sight.

“We’ve been struggling to get runs across, so we did some things to put pressure on the defense and see what happens,” Price said. “Tonight we were able to get some first-and-third situations. It was just finding situations that presented themselves and trying to get going out there. It worked out real well for us.”

James Wood starter Carder Smith started each of the first three innings by getting two quick outs. But getting the third out became somewhat of a chore for the left-hander, although not all of it was Smith’s fault.

In the second inning, No. 9 batter Jake Cunningham (2 for 3, two runs scored) and Josh Martin had consecutive two-out singles for the Raiders. Griffin Buscavage then did well to go the other way with a seeing-eye single to right for an RBI and 1-0 lead.

Smith stranded two and Loudoun County left five on base early, but the Raiders added a single run again in the third when Dillon Ratty reached on a two-out error by shortstop Nick Goode, went to second on a passed ball, and scored on a double to the warning track by Patrick Carty (who was nailed trying to stretch his hit to a triple).

The Colonels got an unearned run across in their half of the third to trail 2-1 before the Raiders had their best execution of the game to move ahead 5-1 after a three-run fourth against two pitchers.

Facing the bottom of Loudoun County’s order, Smith gave up a leadoff walk to Matt Thomas. Cunningham then bunted up the first-base side and Smith was late to cover, leaving everyone safe. The Colonels then decided to bring Andy Kennedy in from left field in relief, and the Raiders continued to build their lead.

After walking Martin to load the bases, Kennedy got the infield fly rule applied on Buscavage's pop up to first (which was dropped). With one out, A. J. Bourscheid (2 for 3, run scored) ripped a two-run single to right. Boursheid later scored from third with two outs on a steal-stop by Eathan Carlyon, who held up long enough between first and second to allow Boursheid to score his run and make it 5-1.

The Raiders got their final two runs in the fifth, and putting pressure on with the steal again played a big part. With runners on the corners, the throw down to second with Rattay (two runs scored) was cut off and the instead went to third, getting by for an error and allowing Zack Costello to come in to score. A sacrifice fly by Carty (2 for 3, two RBIs) finished off the scoring for the Raiders.

Getting seven runs of support while he pitched was more than enough to work with for Kranenberg. Heading into Wednesday’s game, Kranenberg had pitched a grand total of two innings.

“We had a game [Tuesday] night and we have a game [today] so I gave him the opportunity tonight to see what he could do,” Price said. “He came in and threw strikes and was around the zone. When you do that, you’re going to give your defense and opportunity to play behind you. And he definitely did that tonight.”

Through four innings, Kranenberg gave up just singles to Goode (in the first) and Russell Repasky (in the second). In the fifth, Kranenberg started to show some wear and the Colonels had the makings of a big inning.

Kranenberg did a nice job to recover and field KaCee Duggan’s smash off of his right leg for the first out, but a walk, error (one of six committed by the Raiders), and a hit batsman loaded the bases with one out. Kranenberg almost got out of it unscathed before Repasky (2 for 4) slapped a two-strike, two-out single up the middle to score two runs and cut James Wood’s deficit to 7-3.

A single by Cohen Kerns followed, but Kranenberg (five innings pitched, four hits, no earned runs, one walk, and four strikeouts) got a comebacker from Justin McDonald to end the inning and his stint.

“He did a great job,” Stiles said of Kranenberg, who earned his first win of the season. “He came at us. We go up there and we take good pitches, and then we get down in the count and chase the bad ones.”

Stiles, who coaches the pitchers for the Colonels, had hoped for better results from his staff. While a scoreless inning from both Repasky and Addison Barber late offered some hope, the struggles of Smith and Kennedy (combined five walks and five earned runs allowed) at the start offered up many opportunities for the struggling Raiders.

“Pitching wise, we didn’t throw strikes tonight,” Stiles said. “One of the main things we tell our guys is that you have to work ahead [in the count] and stay ahead. We didn’t do that tonight, we got behind in the count, they got hitter’s counts, and they took advantage of it.”