(I will be editing this one paragraph at a time to hopefully avoid the issues I sometimes have.)
Visiting Wilson and Riverheads staged a classic pitchers' duel on a chilly afternoon on the RHS diamond, with a pair of Hornet hurlers handcuffing the usually potent Gladiator bats on the way to a 2-0 Shenandoah District win. Prior to today, Riverheads had outscored four Rockingham and Shenandoah County teams by a combined 49-10 score and then squeaked out a 6-5 win at Stuarts Draft, but today that average of 11 runs per game came to an end, due to strong performances from Wilson's Cameron Johnson and Christian Brewer. Unofficially I only had Riverheads for two hits in the game.
The most frustrating aspect of the loss for Riverheads was the fact that their own starting pitcher, senior Levi Dunlap, pitched a heck of a game himself, going the distance on 87 pitches. He kept the Hornets off the board for their final six at-bats, but the Big Red just could not get the key hits they needed to match the two runs that Wilson scored in the top of the first.
Dunlap got the first batter out on just two pitches and seemed to be confident on the mound but a bloop single to right got the Hornets started. They scratched out two more hits in the top of the first to grab their early lead. Chances are no one on the field believed those would be the final runs scored in the game.
Ironically the Big Red then had its best chance of the game to even things up in the bottom of that same frame. However, they stranded runners at second and third to end the inning.
The only other serious scoring threat for either team came in the Hornet half of the fourth. Johnson opened the frame with a ground rule double to straight away center, but to the Gladiators' credit, they were able to avoid further damage and stay within striking distance.
Riverheads did work the reliever Brewer for a walk in the home half of the seventh, which brought the tying run to the plate. However, Brewer struck the next guy out in short order to end the game in something like an hour and 35 minutes.
Given the chilly weather, the brevity of the game was a blessing, not to mention the lack of the usual wind we see at Riverheads. Also it was played with almost no controversy and if either team made an error, I don't recall it. That might mean that we were seeing the two best teams in the district in action, but perhaps it is too early to make that call.
So if you like those 12-10 three hour slugfests, this would not have been your game, but both coaches should applaud their team's effort today and consider it a quality outing. Riverheads will be back in action, weather-permitting, at Waynesboro Friday night.
