Following the renaming of its field for 1963 Parry McCluer High School graduate and former Major League Baseball player and manager Charlie Manuel, the PM baseball team tried to rally from a slow start, but local rival Rockbridge County dealt the Fighting Blues an 18-5 loss in six innings on Saturday afternoon in Buena Vista.
With the win, the Wildcats (4-7) completed a sweep of the season series with PM (4-11), which had won three consecutive games this week. When the teams met on April 5 at RC, the Wildcats had cruised to a 14-1 victory in five innings.
In the rematch, RC took a 3-0 lead in the first and added two runs in the second before racking up seven runs in the fourth to extend its lead to 12-0. PM responded by scoring its first three runs in the bottom of the fourth and added two runs in the fifth to cut RC’s lead to 12-5.
The Wildcats then pulled away with six runs in the top of the sixth before ending the game in the bottom of the sixth due to the 10-run mercy rule.
PM recorded nine hits against RC’s two pitchers, starter Drew Potter and reliever Brady Edwards, while RC had seven hits against four PM pitchers. The Wildcats capitalized on four PM errors, while RC had one error.
Peyton Ramsey led the Blues with three hits, while Brayden Holdren had two hits, and four other Blues each had one hit.
Nolan Stines paced RC with two hits, Clay Irvine had one hit and three RBIs, and four other Wildcats each recorded one hit.
Both RC and PM will be in action on Tuesday at 5 p.m., with the Wildcats playing host to Valley District rival William Monroe and the Blues traveling to face Pioneer District rival Bath County.
For the full stories on this week’s action, with photos from Saturday’s game and the naming ceremony for the PM baseball field, please see our May 7 newspaper.
