On a perfect spring evening, visiting Riverheads jumped on Stuarts Draft from the opening pitch and never let their bats rest as they annihilated the home team 12-0 in a five-inning run rule game. The Gladiators entered the game with a 3-2 non-district record, having swept Covington and beaten Harrisonburg just yesterday by an 11-4 count. Their two losses were to Alleghany.
But this one counted in district play and to say the Big Red came ready to play would be an understatement as they controlled all aspects of the game. The bats were quite obviously on fire, a trio of pitchers kept the Cougars off the scoreboard, and if RHS had any fielding errors I don't remember them. Given the lopsided score, there were certainly none that caused any harm.
Lead off batter Brendan Fortune got the party started when he reached base on what should have been a routine ground out. However the Cougar second baseman sailed the throw a good six feet over the first baseman's head, allowing Fortune to reach safely. He stole second and then scored on a pair of sacrifice singles. That chain of events cleared the bases and ordinarily might have allowed the Cougars to come to bat facing only a 1-0 deficit.
But RHS had other ideas as the remaining six members of the line-up all came to bat, and by the time the dust settled the Big Red had plated five more runs, all scored after the two outs had been recorded. So instead of a manageable one-run hole to climb out of, the Cougars found themselves down 6-0 and it only got worse from there.
The Pride added two more runs in the second, a single run in the third and then capped it off with a three-run fourth inning. The closest the Cougars came to scoring was in the bottom of the third. They loaded the bases with one out but Riverheads got out of the jam on an inning-ending double play. The Big Red defense turned another DP in a later Cougar inning.
Since this was my first game of the season, I am still learning the roster, but it was certainly a total team effort. The idea of using three pitchers may have been connected to the fact that RHS has a game scheduled with Buffalo Gap Thursday, although the weather sounds threatening. So Coach Painter may have been thinking that it would be wise to keep everyone's pitch count down to a safe level. I know that Ethan Fitzgerald was the starter today and therefore earned the win, but I will need more time to learn the rest of the staff.
So most definitely an impressive win for the Big Red, but if Coach Painter is as smart as I think he is, he has already told his troops that this was only the first of the 12 district games they will have and that they should not read too much into this one. Likewise the Cougar skipper has probably got his guys motivated to put this one behind them and aim for an 11-1 district mark. But something tells me the Shenandoah will be just as competitive as ever and we most likely will see many more ups and downs from both these teams.
The energetic Cougar PA announcer also kept us posted on the softball game being played next door. That one was quite obviously a pitchers' duel as the Lady Cougars pushed across a run in the late innings to squeak past Riverheads 1-0.
But this one counted in district play and to say the Big Red came ready to play would be an understatement as they controlled all aspects of the game. The bats were quite obviously on fire, a trio of pitchers kept the Cougars off the scoreboard, and if RHS had any fielding errors I don't remember them. Given the lopsided score, there were certainly none that caused any harm.
Lead off batter Brendan Fortune got the party started when he reached base on what should have been a routine ground out. However the Cougar second baseman sailed the throw a good six feet over the first baseman's head, allowing Fortune to reach safely. He stole second and then scored on a pair of sacrifice singles. That chain of events cleared the bases and ordinarily might have allowed the Cougars to come to bat facing only a 1-0 deficit.
But RHS had other ideas as the remaining six members of the line-up all came to bat, and by the time the dust settled the Big Red had plated five more runs, all scored after the two outs had been recorded. So instead of a manageable one-run hole to climb out of, the Cougars found themselves down 6-0 and it only got worse from there.
The Pride added two more runs in the second, a single run in the third and then capped it off with a three-run fourth inning. The closest the Cougars came to scoring was in the bottom of the third. They loaded the bases with one out but Riverheads got out of the jam on an inning-ending double play. The Big Red defense turned another DP in a later Cougar inning.
Since this was my first game of the season, I am still learning the roster, but it was certainly a total team effort. The idea of using three pitchers may have been connected to the fact that RHS has a game scheduled with Buffalo Gap Thursday, although the weather sounds threatening. So Coach Painter may have been thinking that it would be wise to keep everyone's pitch count down to a safe level. I know that Ethan Fitzgerald was the starter today and therefore earned the win, but I will need more time to learn the rest of the staff.
So most definitely an impressive win for the Big Red, but if Coach Painter is as smart as I think he is, he has already told his troops that this was only the first of the 12 district games they will have and that they should not read too much into this one. Likewise the Cougar skipper has probably got his guys motivated to put this one behind them and aim for an 11-1 district mark. But something tells me the Shenandoah will be just as competitive as ever and we most likely will see many more ups and downs from both these teams.
The energetic Cougar PA announcer also kept us posted on the softball game being played next door. That one was quite obviously a pitchers' duel as the Lady Cougars pushed across a run in the late innings to squeak past Riverheads 1-0.
