James Wood baseball rallies past Judges for 12-8 win

Posted: March 25, 2014

By MARK SAWYER

Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — On a chilly night better suited for football, the Handley and James Wood baseball teams renewed their Northwestern District rivalry on the diamond in an early-season contest — and for the Judges it was a tale of two completely different games.

What started out as a good night for Handley turned disastrous thanks in large part to 10 errors that helped erase a six-run lead and led to a 12-8 setback at the hands of the Colonels Monday night at Bridgeforth Field.

“We did what we had to do. We’re very happy being 3-0, but we need a lot of improvement. [There’s] lots that needs to be worked on,” said James Wood first-year coach Brent Lockhart. “We’re nowhere near where we need to be. I’m going to keep doing my job to the best of my ability and keep pushing these kids to their limits. Hopefully they keep buying into everything I give them and we’ll see what we can do.”

Through three innings the Judges could do no wrong and looked as if they might roll to their first victory of the season.

After retiring the Colonels in the top of the first the Judges (0-2, 0-1 Northwestern District) opened the game with four consecutive singles by Brian Thomas, Troy Bergin, Blaine Homan, and Clifton Ambers, with Thomas coming around to make it 1-0 on the Ambers’ hit.

Following a fielder’s choice, Christian Hoffman smacked Handley’s fifth single of the game, driving in Homan to make it 2-0 and reloading the bases. One out later, Handley would add to the lead when Cole Talton’s ground ball was misplayed, allowing two more to score and pushing the lead to 4-0.

With a four-run cushion Judges starter Joshua Blake (0-1) went right to work and retired the Colonels in order in the top half of the second, bringing his offense back to the plate.

Thomas and Bergin started the inning with back-to-back singles to put runners on first and third. With one out, Ambers grounded out to drive in Thomas and Blake helped himself out with an RBI single, scoring Bergin for a 6-0 advantage.

“I had to pull them all together there in that third inning and calm all the guys down.” Lockhart said. “Told them to just relax, we’ve got a five-inning game. We just need to chip away. I just told them we needed better at bats at the plate, we needed to put the ball in play better. Just put the ball on the ground and give us a better chance of putting runners on.”

Wood (3-0, 1-0) started to chip away with an unearned run in the third inning to cut the deficit to 6-1.

Handley’s first error of the game allowed Reid Barber to reach for the Colonels and, after a sacrifice bunt, Barber came around to score on an RBI double off the bat of KaCee Duggan.

It seemed that first run for the Colonels took the pressure off them and put it squarely on the Judges, because the fourth inning is not one that either team will soon forget.

The Colonels picked up just three hits in the decisive inning, but were aided by two walks, two hit batters and six Handley errors, five of which came with two outs.

When all was said and done and the dust had settled, the Colonels had sent 14 batters to the plate in the fourth and pushed across 10 runs, going from five down to five up before the Judges knew what hit them.

During the inning Kristian Malsch had an RBI double and Dakota Orndorff and Barber each had RBI singles while most of the rest of the runs scored on Handley miscues.

“It was that third column on the scoreboard,” said Handley first-year coach Patrick Wingfield about his team’s troubles in the field. “It’s the lack of being outside along with the lack of experience at certain positions. Early in the season they need practice.

“We saw a lot of things we did well. I think at the plate we were aggressive and we were hitting hard ground balls. I think our pitchers did all they could. I think all of these guys are learning quickly. Without that one inning ... it’s hard to overcome that.”

The two teams combined for 14 errors, with the Judges accounting for 10 of them. All 12 runs for the Colonels were unearned and a vast majority of the Handley runs were as well.

Handley out-hit the Colonels 13-8, but eight of its hits came in the first two innings, while seven of Wood’s hits came in the last three innings.

“It’s a lot different from last year,” Duggan said. “Last year if we got down we would just kind of quit. I’m glad this team’s not doing that, shows it’s going to be different this year which is good. We just started putting the ball in play and we did a good job of rallying together.

“It’s a great feeling [being 3-0]. It gives us confidence and it gives us momentum to face really good competition. I’m just excited, I think this team is going to do a lot better then last year.”

Duggan, the Colonels leadoff hitter, reached base four out of five times. He was 2 for 4 with a pair of doubles, two runs scored and two RBIs. Orndorff also had two hits, scored twice and drove in a run.

Each of the Handley starters, except for one, had at least one hit. Thomas, Bergin, Homan, Ambers, and Tyler Paniagua had two hits apiece. Homan scored three times and Thomas twice, while Ambers drove in two in the loss.