Shenandoah District kingpin Wilson Memoria celebrated Senior Night in a big way tonight with a 14-4 victory over arch-rival Riverheads, in a game that was actually still within reach for the visitors before Wilson exploded for six runs in the bottom of the 5th and then wrapped things up with another tally in the sixth. The game ended at that point due to the run-rule policy.
The game opened with a battle between two sophomore starters as Eli Irving took the mound for the Hornets and Ethan Fitzgerald for the Gladiators. Irving needed only 11 pitches to retire the first three Big Red batters and in the bottom of the frame, Fitzgerald was momentarily doing even better than that as he had only thrown six pitches to record the first two outs, but the Hornets staged a three-run rally which put Riverheads in catch up mode.
The Gladiators then adjusted to Irving for the next two innings and to their credit, when that top third of the order faced him a second time, all three hit safely, which kept them in the game. They crept back to within 3-1, then 4-2, and in the top of the fifth, a dropped fly ball plated the final two Riverheads runs to keep them within striking distance at 7-4.
But a quartet of Gladiator hurlers just could not contain Wilson's potent offense as they put the game out of reach with that big fifth inning. Both teams have two more games next week to wrap up the regular season. Wilson will easily win the Shenandoah crown and will presumably have a high seed in the Region 3-C playoffs.
Riverheads will qualify in its final year in Region 1-B but the three recent losses they have suffered (Buffalo Gap and Fort Defiance being the other two) may have knocked them down a peg or two in the region's pecking order. Considering that their final two games are against Waynesboro and Staunton, the two teams who are at or near the bottom of the standings, the Big Red would like nothing better than to end the regular season on a high note by knocking off those two squads.
The game opened with a battle between two sophomore starters as Eli Irving took the mound for the Hornets and Ethan Fitzgerald for the Gladiators. Irving needed only 11 pitches to retire the first three Big Red batters and in the bottom of the frame, Fitzgerald was momentarily doing even better than that as he had only thrown six pitches to record the first two outs, but the Hornets staged a three-run rally which put Riverheads in catch up mode.
The Gladiators then adjusted to Irving for the next two innings and to their credit, when that top third of the order faced him a second time, all three hit safely, which kept them in the game. They crept back to within 3-1, then 4-2, and in the top of the fifth, a dropped fly ball plated the final two Riverheads runs to keep them within striking distance at 7-4.
But a quartet of Gladiator hurlers just could not contain Wilson's potent offense as they put the game out of reach with that big fifth inning. Both teams have two more games next week to wrap up the regular season. Wilson will easily win the Shenandoah crown and will presumably have a high seed in the Region 3-C playoffs.
Riverheads will qualify in its final year in Region 1-B but the three recent losses they have suffered (Buffalo Gap and Fort Defiance being the other two) may have knocked them down a peg or two in the region's pecking order. Considering that their final two games are against Waynesboro and Staunton, the two teams who are at or near the bottom of the standings, the Big Red would like nothing better than to end the regular season on a high note by knocking off those two squads.
