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Gladiators "Slaughter Rule" Storm

longtimerhsfan

VaPreps All Region
Dec 12, 2006
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Riverheads' junior hurler Colton Kwiecinski went the minimum distance this afternoon of 4 1/2 innings as the Big Red picked up its second victory of the season with a resounding 16-0 rout of the Staunton Storm. There was no recap at the end of the game but I would estimate that he held the visitors to no more than four or five hits, while the Gladiators pounded out somewhere in the neighborhood of 16-18 safeties, including 6 in the third inning and 8 in their final at-bat.

Ironically the Staunton pitching staff was not entirely to blame as Riverheads did not exactly "long ball" their way to victory. In fact you could probably count the Gladiator fly balls on one hand and I am pretty sure that no more than two of their hits went for extra bases. Instead the Storm was done in by some extremely shaky infield play as they booted and bobbled playable grounders all game long. Again I have no line score to refer to, but I would not be surprised if the Storm had as many as 8-10 errors in the game. Riverheads by contrast was much sharper than they had been in Tuesday's season-opener at Wilson and might have actually played error-free ball.

The Gladiators also ran the bases aggressively, stealing second as frequently as three times in the same inning. As a result they scored at least two runs per frame, leading 2-0, 5-0, and 8-0 before a final 8 -run explosion in the fourth doubled the margin. The closest Staunton came to scoring was in the first two innings as their lead-off man hit safely in each of those frames, only to see the Big Red snuff out each threat with a double play. To the best of my recollection, the Storm did not manage to see a man safely reach second base at any point in the game.

Riverheads will face county rivals Fort Defiance and Buffalo Gap next week, each game on the road. I believe those two games are set for the traditional Tuesday/Friday schedule.
 
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