Keller’s 2 RBIs Help Wood Baseball Rally Past Eagles 3-2

Posted: April 18, 2014
By MARK SAWYER
Special to The Winchester Star

BERRYVILLE — The first time James Wood and Clarke County met on the baseball field this season, not quite a month ago in each team’s second game of the season, the Colonels rolled to a 15-3 victory.

Clarke County junior pitcher Alex Dobry made sure that wasn’t going to happen in the rematch Thursday evening.

Unfortunately for Dobry and the Eagles, James Wood scored a pair of late-inning runs and rallied past the Eagles 3-2 in a non-district game at Wood’s R. Charles Hott Field to sweep the season series.

Dobry went the distance allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits. He walked four and struck out four and held a 2-1 lead through four innings.

However, the one Colonel that Dobry couldn’t figure out came through big in the fifth inning for Wood (7-2).

With two outs and runners on first and second, Colonel first baseman Noah Keller ripped a fastball into right to score Canon Cochran from second with the tying run. Cochran had singled and stole second earlier in the inning to start the rally.

Keller collected three of Wood’s five hits, finishing the night 3 for 3 with two RBIs and several defensive picks at first base to save some errors and potentially some runs.

“We made a lot of mistakes early and that put us down but our motto all season has been claw back and that’s what we did,” Keller said. “[Down a run in the fifth] all I was thinking was put the ball in play. He missed with his first pitch, and I knew it was going to be a fastball so I just laid into it.

“This team this year is a lot different because everyone’s in the game all the time. They keep fighting and they never wanna give up. This program has been a losing program for a long time so it feels good to get a new attitude and this year we’re winning a lot of games we should win — one- and two-run games that we lost last year.”

With the game tied 2-2 entering the bottom of the sixth inning, the Colonels went to the bench to come up with the winning run, and they got some help from the Eagles.

Three consecutive pinch hitters to start the sixth inning produced the game winning unearned run that sent the Colonel faithful home happy.

The first pinch hitter was junior Conor Babington and he started the rally by reaching on an error. Babington moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by pinch hitter Carder Smith.

With one out it appeared Babington may have run the Colonels out of the inning when he headed for third on Roger Repasky’s ground ball to short. However, on a bang-bang play at third Babington was called safe, putting runners on the corners.

On the next pitch, Repasky took off for second on a planned play, and Clarke County catcher Caleb Preacher came out of his crouch and attempted to fake a throw to third. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the ball slipped out of Preacher’s hand and landed in shallow left field, allowing Babington to score the lead run. Dobry retired the next two hitters to end the threat but the Colonels held a 3-2 lead.

“We did what we had to do to get the ‘W’ but we’re a much better ball club than what we were tonight,” first-year James Wood coach Brent Lockhart said. “We played flat but at the same time they played much better baseball than the first time we played them. Our guys didn’t play to our full potential tonight, we kind of just went through the motions.

“We’re definitely happy we got the win, anytime you get a win it’s a great night. We’ll go over this tomorrow, fix the mistakes and get ready for Sherando. It’s going real well [being 7-2] but it’s going to be an uphill battle from here on. Which is good because it will get us ready for the conference tournament.”

Wood took the early lead with a run in their half of the first. Leadoff hitter KaCee Duggan doubled to right to start the game but was still there two outs later.

After a walk to Dakota Orndorff, Keller picked up the first of his three hits, a solid single to right to score Duggan.

Clarke County (5-5) immediately answered right back with a run in the top of the second.

Connor Liggett led off with a double down the left-field line. He moved to third on a ground out off the bat of Dobry and came in to tie the game on an RBI groundout by Cody Santmyer.

Dobry then retired the Colonels in order in the second and got his team right back to the plate and they rewarded him with another run.

Kasey Lake singled and stole second to start the inning, but one out later looked as if he made a critical base running mistake when he took off for third on a comebacker to the pitcher.

The throw to third was wild and went past Wood third baseman Zach Thompson, allowing Lake to continue home and give the Eagles the 2-1 advantage.

“We played great defense today, the ball slipped out of his hand [in the sixth] trying to run a play, you can’t blame that as the reason for the game though,” Clarke County coach Jon Novick said. “We had bases loaded, no outs in one inning and couldn’t score a run. We had runners in scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings and couldn’t score a run. We can’t dwell on that one play and say that was the difference in today’s game.

“We couldn’t get the timely hit when we needed it and couldn’t put any crooked numbers up. I’m not happy that we lost today but it was a much better-played game by us today than the last time we played them. We’re a team right now that we can’t compensate for one of our aspects not being perfect. When we were doing well we were doing everything right. We’ve shown improvement. I’m happy and proud of my guys, they’re working all the way through. This is just a tough one to lose.”

Keller led the way with three hits and two RBIs for the Colonels, and Dobry helped himself by collecting two of Clarke’s five hits, finishing 2 for 3 on the night.