Tough finish

Louisa catcher John Reynolds let out a roar as he trotted back to the dugout after tagging Culpeper National’s Tommy Downs at home plate for the last out of the fourth inning in Friday’s game.

Culpeper National had the bases loaded with two outs in the top of the fourth but ended up stranding everyone on base as Louisa pitcher Cale Agee convinced Corey Twomey to send a grounder right back to the pitcher’s mound.

As it turned out, that was Culpeper’s last scoring opportunity as Louisa used a four-run fourth inning to build a 10-0 lead and force the umpires to enact the 10-run rule. With the win, Louisa advances to the next round of the 9-10 District 14 Little League tournament.

“I actually thought we would hit the ball better than we did,” Louisa coach Dicky Purcell said. “But we had a really good practice yesterday and I think that helped a lot.”

Friday’s game at Dave Canavan Park wasn’t really a game at all, actually it was just a couple innings. The first three innings were played Wednesday, with Louisa building 5-0 lead before rain forced play to be suspended.

“The game plan coming in against Louisa was just to score a couple runs,” Culpeper National coach Daniel Raiford said. “They’ve got a top-notch team. We just wanted to come in and not get shut out, but coming in trailing 5-0 definitely affected our young team.”

Culpeper’s plans to put the ball in play were thwarted by Louisa’s starting pitcher Aaron Szalankiewiez, who struck out two batters in the top of the fourth before being replaced by Agee.

Instead, it was Louisa’s bats that got hot in the latter innings. Jacob Talley opened the bottom of the fourth with a double to deep center field. He then moved to third on a single up the middle from Alex Hurley.

“I think Louisa’s experience was the biggest factor,” Raiford said. “They hit the ball well and we struggled to make contact.”

Talley ended up getting tagged out at home by Twomey, but it didn’t matter because Culpeper pitcher Bret Sherina found himself in a rut and couldn’t figure out how to get out.

Sherina walked Louisa’s Tucker Pleasants to load the bases and then walked Agee to put Culpeper in a 7-0 hole. Szalankiewiez scored after Twomey dropped the ball on a throw to home plate and Sherina walked in another run to make it 9-0.

As if he had planned it that way, Reynolds’ roar was heard once again after he dropped a blooper into shallow right field to seal Louisa’s victory with the 10th and final run.

Louisa moves on to play the winner of Gordonsville and Central at Monticello today.

Friday’s may have spelled the end of Culpeper National’s tournament run, but Raiford is already excited about next year.

“I see a lot of heart in the nine-year-olds we have,” he said. “So come back and see us next year. We’ll be in contention.”