Pioneers rally past Colonels

By Mark Sawyer
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Often times in baseball one bad inning can cost teams a win, and such was the case for James Wood Thursday night at Millbrook.

The Colonels were looking to keep the Pioneers from crawling back into the logjam at the top of the Northwestern District standings with Handley and Sherando.

But there was that one inning, a six-run third, where Millbrook erased a three-run deficit and pulled ahead for a crucial 7-3 victory.

With the win, the Pioneers sweep the season series and move into a three-way tie for first with Handley and Sherando (by virtue of Sherando’s victory over Handley Thursday night). Each team has one regular season district game remaining before next week’s tournament.

Things looked good for the Colonels early on.

James Wood (2-16, 1-5 Northwestern) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first without the benefit of a hit. Leadoff hitter Brock Lockhart was hit by the first pitch of the game and stole second. Lockhart moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Niko Bobadilla and scored on a Cody Vorous sacrifice fly. The Colonels added a pair of runs in the top of the third. With one out Lockhart singled and Bobadilla walked. Vorous singled to left, scoring Lockhart, and Andrew Burnett’s sacrifice fly to right made it 3-0.

But Wood didn’t score again.

“We came out and played well through three and executed, did the little things,” Colonels coach Jared Mounts said. “A team like Millbrook, they’re gonna swing it. That’s their strength, they swing the bats. They put runs on the board, that’s what they do well.”

Trailing by three but with plenty of at-bats left, the Pioneers (8-10, 5-2) went to work in the bottom of the third, and they got some help from Bobadilla on the mound.

Bobadilla walked Casey Fauver to start the inning, and after Ethan Mathews doubled into the left-field corner, Bobadilla hit the next two batters, Mike Dillow and Adam Jackson, to force in the Pioneers’ first run of the game.

Mounts put in Matt Copley with the bases loaded and a two-run lead. But Copley was greeted rudely by Collin Ryan, who ripped the first pitch to deep right for a bases-clearing double and a 4-3 Millbrook lead.

Jordan Hartman and Fauver each added run-scoring singles later in the inning to increase the lead to 6-3. Millbrook batted around in the inning, sending 11 men to the plate and scoring six runs on just four hits.

“That was a good sign. Maybe that’s gonna lead to better things down the road that we can come back from a deficit, take the lead and keep the lead,” Millbrook coach Mike Smith said. “You talk about team effort, everybody did something positive tonight. It was definitely nice for our team to come back and win after being down like that.”

In the top of the fourth, the Colonels put the first two runners on base and were looking to answer with another rally of their own, but the Pioneers turned to their bullpen and brought in junior ace Brady Baker.

Not only did Baker get out of the inning without allowing any damage, he went the rest of the way, allowing just three hits and five baserunners.

The Pioneers added an important insurance run in the bottom of the fifth inning, thanks to a clutch pinch hit from a senior on senior night. After a one-out walk to Tyler Hargrove, T.J. Atlee came off the bench and drilled a shot to deep right for an RBI triple and a 7-3 lead.

“We did have some clutch hits, and I think that definitely helped us, there’s no doubt about that,” Smith said. “This is just a nice win to finish up the week. We need to keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’ve been playing better here of late, and that’s a positive.”

The Colonels outhit the Pioneers 7-6 but were unable to get the clutch ones, leaving six men on base, four in scoring position.

“It’s all about the timely hit,” Mounts said. “They got the bases-clearing double. That was huge.”

Hartman was the only Pioneer to pick up more then one hit, finishing 2 for 4 with an RBI and a stolen base. Ryan had the double and three RBIs.

Vorous led the way for the Colonels, finishing 2 for 3 with two RBIs. Lockhart was 1 for 3 and scored twice.

Millbrook wore pink jerseys to raise awareness for breast cancer, and umpires and players from both teams wore pink wristbands.