Wildcats Suffer 8-1 Loss In Game Played At JMU
In a week of stormy weather that prevented the Rockbridge County High School baseball team from having any true home games, the Wildcats suffered an 8-1 loss to Valley District rival East Rockingham on Thursday at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.
The game was originally scheduled for Monday of last week, but it was postponed due to thunderstorm and relocated to JMU due to poor field conditions at RC.
“Weather has certainly not cooperated with us for home games this season,” said RC head coach Travis Roadcap. “Playing at JMU was a great experience for our kids, with phenomenal hospitality considering the circumstances so we appreciate JMU for hosting us for our ‘home’ game.”
Last month, the Wildcats (5-10 overall, 3-7 district) had dealt East Rockingham (15-3, 9-3) its first loss of the season, with RC winning 6-3 on April 14 in Elkton. However, the Eagles have won seven of nine games since this, only falling twice to district rival Spotswood (14-4, 8-4) during that stretch.
In the rematch, the Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when William Eppard singled on a line drive to center field to bring home Landon Bruce.
The Eagles added two more runs in the second, with Grason Shifflett scoring on a sacrifice fly to center field by Alex Jenkins and Brady Grant running home on an RC error.
RC scored its only run in the bottom of the fourth. After Austyn Gannutz walked and then advanced to third when Drew Potter doubled to center field, Gannutz scored on a groundout by Brady Majors to cut ER’s lead to 3-1.
The Eagles answered in the fifth with two runs when Eppard singled on a line drive to center field to bring home Bruce and Grayson Hammer, extending their lead to 5-1.
In the sixth, Hammer singled on a hard grounder to left field to bring home Jenkins, and Eppard drove in the final two runs when he singled on a line drive to right field, bringing home Bruce and Hammer.
ER racked up 10 hits while holding RC to five. Eppard led the Eagles with four hits and five RBIs, while Hammer had two hits and one RBI.
Potter paced RC with two hits, while Gannutz, Austin Moyers and Rocky Perlozzo each recorded one hit.
On the mound, Bruce pitched the first five innings for ER, striking out six while allowing three hits, two walks and one unearned run. In the final two innings, Anders Yancey struck out two while surrendering two hits, no walks and no runs.
For RC, Majors started the game, striking out four while allowing eight hits, one walk and five runs, two of them earned, in five innings. In the final two innings, Tyler Woods struck out one while permitting two hits, one walk and three earned runs.
The Wildcats committed three errors, while the Eagles had none.
Giving credit to the Eagles and his own players, Roadcap said ER “is 15-3 for a reason, and the Valley District is loaded, if you look at the overall records and standings. It feels like every night we’re playing a team that is going to finish with at least 15 wins, but we are competing with all of them while seeing their best pitchers, which says a lot about our players.”
The Wildcats were scheduled to play host to Staunton on Thursday, but that game was replaced with the game against ER because Staunton is in a different district.
RC was slated to play host to Rocktown on Monday, finishing a game that was stopped by a thunderstorm on April 25 and then playing a second game. Today, Wednesday, the Wildcats are scheduled to play host to district rival Turner Ashby at 5 p.m. in a game that was rescheduled from last Friday due to a thunderstorm. On Friday, the Wildcats will conclude the regular season when they play host to district rival Broadway at 5 p.m.
