Valley District action did not start well for the Rockbridge County High School baseball team, which suffered an 11-1 road loss to William Monroe on Friday evening in Stanardsville.
On Saturday, the Wildcats improved to 1-2 by defeating Parry McCluer 14-1 in five innings in their home opener in Lexington. (See separate story.)
WM (5-2 overall, 1-0 district) scored in each inning and racked up 10 hits while holding the Wildcats to two. Also hurting the Wildcats were five errors, while the Green Dragons had just one.
In the first inning, WM took a 1-0 lead when Parker Hildebrand belted a home run over the right field fence. The Dragons made it 2-0 when Talan Morris scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Drew Britton. WM added another run in the third when Hildebrand scored on an RC error.
The Dragons’ best inning was the fourth, when they scored four runs to stretch their lead to 7-0. Hildebrand brought in two of those runs when he doubled on a line drive to right field, and Waylon Anderegg singled on a grounder to right field to drive in two more runs. WM added another run in the fifth on a double on a fly ball to center field by Britton, making it 8-0.
RC’s lone run came in the top of the sixth when Drew Potter singled on a grounder to right field to bring home Clay Irvine.
The Dragons scored their final three runs in the sixth, two on RC errors and the last when Gavin Battaile-Gilbert singled to left field, ending the game early due to the 10run mercy rule.
Leading WM with two hits each were Hildebrand, Anderegg and Dallas Battaile-Gilbert. Hildreband and Britton each paced the Dragons with three RBIs. Recording one hit each for the Wildcats were Potter and Bradi Ziegler.
Three WM pitchers combined to strike out seven while allowed just one walk and one unearned run. For RC, Elijah Watkins pitched the first 3.1 innings, striking out three while surrendering five hits, two walks and four earned runs. Brady Edwards pitched the final two innings, striking out one while allowing five hits, three walks and seven runs (three earned).
The Wildcats were scheduled to play host to Spotswood yesterday and will play at Fort Defiance on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. before returning to district action at East Rockingham on Monday at 7 p.m. On Tuesday, they’ll play host to district rival Harrisonburg at 5 p.m.
