Culpeper victory

The Culpeper American Major Baseball All-Stars got a pair of early home runs that helped build a six run lead, then hung on to pick up its first victory of the district tournament, 8-5 against visiting Nelson County at Canavan Park on Thursday.

Zach Stanley and John William Anderson each hit homers and Anderson added a single for Culpeper as the home team racked up seven runs in the first four innings and led 7-1 heading into the fifth.

“It was a big change for us compared to the other night,” Culpeper American manager Lynn Hackley said. “I told the guys that if we hit the ball we can overcome a lot of things. We can afford to have a couple of errors in the field if you are hitting the ball. It you are not hitting the ball you have to play perfect defense, but they were hitting the ball tonight.”

Hackley’s words proved true in the fifth when Nelson took advantage of some Culpeper throwing errors and scored four runs to make it a 7-5 lead. Culpeper was able to add an insurance run in the bottom of the inning and held Nelson scoreless the rest of the way.

Stanley got the job done for Culpeper American on the mound. He started and pitched 4 1/3 innings, striking out seven before giving way to Ben Bridges. Bridges closed out the final 2 2/3 innings, striking out five.

Bridges also added a double at the plate for Culpeper. Will Dwyer doubled and singled for Culpeper and Bryan Ramey added a pair of singles with Kameron Kershner also singling.

Culpeper, now 1-2 in the tournament plays Saturday at 10 a.m. at Gordonsville and knows they have a challenge ahead if they want to make it to the next round of the tournament.

“It’s going to be tough,” Hackley said. “We’ve got three teams in front of us.”