Staying alive

Way back in June when his team opened the season, Culpeper American Legion Post 330 baseball team manager Jeff Crane made a promise, “We’re going to hit the ball this year.”

Post 330’s bats landed them on top of District 16 standings heading into Thursday’s opening round of the district tournament, and their bats are what led them to a 8-4 victory over Post 72 from Warrenton.

“We played good baseball and that’s what it’s all about,” Crane said. “In these tournaments you’ve got to do good and stay alive, and that’s what we did today.”

Post 330 had to hang on for survival early in the game after Warrenton’s catcher Ryan Smith blasted a solo home run over the fence in left-center field in the first inning.

Culpeper tried to respond by loading the bases in the bottom of the first but a fly out ended the scoring threat, stranding three men on base.

“I was hoping we would get a couple of those runs in but we didn’t,” Crane said. “We did put those runners on base though and we knew we had a lot of game left in front of us. So we just had to prove we could come back and win the ball game, which is what we did.”

Post 330 proved their point in dominant fashion. They trailed 2-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth, but strung together three runs on three hits to take their first lead of the game.

“We just had to get a second go around on the bats and they finally came through,” Culpeper’s starting pitcher Matt Ward said. “This was a big win because you definitely don’t want to come in and lose the first game, you want to go on and keep winning.”

Culpeper High School graduate Nolan Jenkins opened the fifth with a walk, before Colin Harris advanced him to third with a shot that sailed all the way to the right-field fence. Jenkins scored moments later after an RBI double down the first-base line by Adrian Updike-Bobbitt.

The rally didn’t end there. Justin Gardiner tacked on two more runs and gave his team a two-run lead by sneaking a two-RBI double past the outstretched glove of Warrenton’s second baseman.

“We’ve hit the ball all year and we’ve pitched pretty well too,” Crane said. “We’ve been a pretty good all-around ball club this year.”

Post 72 cut into Culpeper’s lead by plating a run in the sixth, but Post 330 stretched it right back out by scoring four in the seventh.

After Warrenton relief pitcher Drew Law walked Matt Lenox to load the bases, CCHS graduate Garrett Cole took the first pitch he saw and bounced in right between Post 72’s third baseman and shortstop scoring three runs and giving Culpeper a 7-3 lead.

Post 330 third baseman Brandon Mack added an insurance run with a sacrifice grounder in the seventh as Culpeper went on to advance to the next round of the tournament, which will be today at 10 a.m. in Stafford.

“We’ve just got to keep hitting the ball and keep hitting our spots as pitchers,” Crane said.

Harris led Post 330 from the plate going 2-for-5, while Gardiner finished 1-for-4 with two RBIs, Cole went 1-for-1 with three RBIs and Brandon Scott finished 1-for-4 with an RBI of his own.

Ward pitched three innings, giving up one hit and one run with one strikeout, before being replaced by Joey Powell who went four innings, giving up five hits and two runs with one strikeout.

Geoff Ward pitched the eighth, giving up one hit, and Updike-Bobbitt came in to close the game in the ninth, striking out one and giving up one hit.