After posting a six-inning 10-0 blowout at Stonewall Jackson on Friday, the Riverheads Gladiators duplicated that score in front of their home fans this afternoon, but only needed the minimum-required 4 1/2 innings to send the Hornets back to Fishersville wondering what hit them. The surprisingly-easy victory drops Wilson two games below Page in the loss column and perhaps takes a little bit of the luster away from their game set for Friday at Wilson. Now a Page win in that one will clinch the district crown outright.
Riverheads settled this one about as early as a game CAN be settled as the Big Red sent 10 men to the plate and scored six runs on six hits in the home half of the first. To be quite honest, and I am sure any Wilson fan in attendance would agree, nothing went right for the visitors today as they helped the Gladiators along with an uncharacteristic five errors in the contest, at least two of which came in that deciding first frame.
Wilson tried a different pitcher in each of the first three innings and nobody could tame the hot RHS bats. After that first-inning blitzkrieg, the Gladiators added three more in the second and pretty much removed all doubt about the outcome. The only suspense involved whether or not the slaughter rule would be invoked and that issue was settled when the Pride scored its 10th run in the fourth and Wilson went quietly in the top of the fifth.
Elijah Dunlap went the distance for RHS and earned the victory, made even more impressive by the jam he worked out of in the third, when Wilson had its one and only threat to score. The Hornets had men at first and third with nobody out and seemed ready to get that goose egg off the scoreboard. But Dunlap got the next guy to pop up, struck out the following one, and a close play at first on an infield grounder kept the shutout alive.
If Wilson has any hopes of still claiming the Shenandoah crown, they will need to knock off the Panthers on Friday and hope at least one other team can do likewise. That of course just might be RHS as the Gladiators will end their regular season at Page in a couple of weeks.
But taking them one game at a time, next up for Riverheads is a quick turnaround with a Wednesday afternoon make-up game at Buffalo Gap. The Bison just took the Big Red down to the wire in a 5-4 game last week in Greenville, so RHS will have to bring its A game and avoid the emotional let-down that sometimes follows a big win.
The Gladiators will then close out the week with another road game, this time at Luray. In fact, RHS only has one more home game on the schedule, and that will be one week from today when they will host R E Lee for Senior Night festivities.
Riverheads settled this one about as early as a game CAN be settled as the Big Red sent 10 men to the plate and scored six runs on six hits in the home half of the first. To be quite honest, and I am sure any Wilson fan in attendance would agree, nothing went right for the visitors today as they helped the Gladiators along with an uncharacteristic five errors in the contest, at least two of which came in that deciding first frame.
Wilson tried a different pitcher in each of the first three innings and nobody could tame the hot RHS bats. After that first-inning blitzkrieg, the Gladiators added three more in the second and pretty much removed all doubt about the outcome. The only suspense involved whether or not the slaughter rule would be invoked and that issue was settled when the Pride scored its 10th run in the fourth and Wilson went quietly in the top of the fifth.
Elijah Dunlap went the distance for RHS and earned the victory, made even more impressive by the jam he worked out of in the third, when Wilson had its one and only threat to score. The Hornets had men at first and third with nobody out and seemed ready to get that goose egg off the scoreboard. But Dunlap got the next guy to pop up, struck out the following one, and a close play at first on an infield grounder kept the shutout alive.
If Wilson has any hopes of still claiming the Shenandoah crown, they will need to knock off the Panthers on Friday and hope at least one other team can do likewise. That of course just might be RHS as the Gladiators will end their regular season at Page in a couple of weeks.
But taking them one game at a time, next up for Riverheads is a quick turnaround with a Wednesday afternoon make-up game at Buffalo Gap. The Bison just took the Big Red down to the wire in a 5-4 game last week in Greenville, so RHS will have to bring its A game and avoid the emotional let-down that sometimes follows a big win.
The Gladiators will then close out the week with another road game, this time at Luray. In fact, RHS only has one more home game on the schedule, and that will be one week from today when they will host R E Lee for Senior Night festivities.
