Baseball: Warriors Rout Colonels

Posted: April 21, 2016
By JOSH DORSEY
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — James Wood got off to a disastrous start and it never recovered against rival Sherando at R. Charles Hott Field on Wednesday night.

Warriors freshman pitcher Michael Usa stymied the Colonels through three innings. He only allowed two hits before giving way to Brett Griffith, who only allowed one hit over two innings.

Meanwhile, the Sherando offense accumulated 13 hits to score its 12 runs and earn a 12-0, mercy-rule shortened win.

“Our guys came out and tried their best. That’s all I can ask,” said James Wood coach Brent Lockhart. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids. Pepper [Martin] has a great group of kids over there. They did a great job putting the ball in play and the pitcher got ahead of us. Sherando is a real good team. They are real tough to compete with. I take full blame and responsibility. I don’t think our coaching staff did a good enough job getting our guys prepared. I take the blame on that. But hats off to Pepper and their team. We’ll come back tomorrow and try to get a little bit better.”

Things started to fall apart for the Colonels on the second pitch of the game when the Warriors’ Frank Ritter singled to left field, and the problems snowballed from there.

Back-to-back balks from Colonels starting pitcher Elijah Smith scored Ritter and a second run came in on a walk following a hit batter later in the inning to chase Smith after only recording one out.

The Warriors (9-5, 2-1 Northwestern District) scored runs in every imaginable way to open the game. From balks and walks, to pickoffs gone wrong, and traditional RBI singles from Michael Usa (who drove in one) and Brett Bodenschatz (who knocked in two).

By the time the inning ended the Warriors had been at the plate for nearly 45 minutes and scored five runs on six hits.

“I was really impressed with our players’ offensive approach and their at-bats,” said Sherando coach Pepper Martin. “We made a couple adjustments. We had some information on the pitcher that faced us, so we made some offensive adjustments. In the past we’ve had situations where we have stressed some adjustments and we’ve gone out and wasted at-bats before finally getting around and making those adjustments the second time through the order. But they did a really nice job tonight of staying back and letting the ball travel to hit it to all fields. We were able to jump out to that big lead and that made it better for our freshman pitcher that was on the mound.”

The Warriors added two more runs on three hits in the second with RBIs from Pearce Bucher and Ravyn Rouse.

The Colonels’ offense was shut down by Usa. Colonels shortstop Joel Smith had the only two hits off of him.

Sherando made it 9-0 when Ritter drove in a run in the third.

“Sometimes when you put up a number like that in an inning you take off a few innings,” Martin said. “We came right back in the second inning and put some more on the board. I thought it was a great offensive effort from our players.”

James Wood (5-9, 0-3) put together a threat with two runners on in the third but a terrific defensive play by Usa ended the inning before the Colonels could plate a run.

Cameron Eback became the Colonels fourth pitcher of the night (after Smith, Gross and Cody Polk) to finish off the third inning and was the first to retire the Warriors in order in the fourth inning.

Sherando pulled Usa from the game after the third inning.

“Michael [Usa] is a freshman and he’s done an outstanding job for us but we want to take care of him,” Martin said. “He had a long sit from his pregame bullpen session and another long sit in the second inning and then again in the third. That’s a long time to get back out there pitching again so we were keeping an eye on that and we wanted Brett [Griffith] to get some work for us.”

“I felt good. I kept warming up every two minutes,” Usa said. “I just threw strikes and let the defense make the plays. There is way less pressure once the offense gives me a lead. We put the ball in play and scored runs. That’s all we have to do — put runs on the board.”

Caleb Peacher led off the top of the fifth with a deep triple to center field and second baseman Collin Painter put the Warriors in line for a win by slaughter rule with an RBI single to give Sherando a 10-0 lead. However, Sherando wasn’t finished with the Colonels.

Tyler Tinsman entered the game as a pinch hitter with two on and two out and drove in a pair of runs with a triple over the right fielder’s head to make it 12-0.

Griffith closed it out in the bottom of the fifth to end it.

“I just try to stay ahead and get ground balls and strikeout,” Griffith said. “Michael did great — he came in and shut things down.”

The next game between the two Frederick County rivals in Stephens City on May 10 counts in the Conference 21 West standings.