Blues’ Bats Go Silent

Blues’ Bats Go Silent Parry McCluer Falls To Rocktown, Narrows, Bath

After enjoying its most successful week of the year recently, scoring 32 runs and picking up a pair of victories, the bats went silent for the Parry McCluer High School baseball team last week.

In three games, the Blues mustered only seven hits and were shut out at home twice in five innings, 24-0 by Rocktown and 12-0 against Pioneer District rival Narrows the next day. On Thursday, the Blues traveled to district rival Bath County and came up on the short end of a 16-9 decision in a game in which the teams combined for 11 hits and 11 errors.

With the three losses after the brief two-game winning streak, PM sits 2-6 overall and 0-3 against district rivals.

With the busy week looming and pitching restrictions a concern, PM was forced to use seven different hurlers last Monday in the rematch with the Raptors. Each one of them gave up at least one run. When the two teams met in PM’s season opener on March 25 at Rocktown, the Raptors won 14-0 in five innings.

In the rematch, the PM pitchers did not get much help from the defense. The Blues committed eight errors in the game, leading to 13 unearned runs for Rocktown, which scored 11 runs in the fifth inning against three different pitchers to blow the game wide open.

Meanwhile, Rocktown’s Xavier Perry and Haidyn Johnson combined for the two-hit shutout on the mound. Perry picked up the victory, going the first three innings and striking out three. Johnson did not allow a hit in his two innings of relief, fanning four.

The Blues mustered just two hits in the contest. In the third, Colby Camden doubled with two outs, and Curtis King followed with an infield single. The Blues failed to score, however, when Camden was thrown out at the plate after King beat the throw to first base.

Narrows 12, PM 0

PM mustered only one hit in Tuesday’s Pioneer District contest against Narrows, a one-out double from Kyle Smals to break up a no-hit bid for the Green Wave’s Parker Bryan in the fifth inning.

Bryan was dominant in his five innings of work, holding the Blues without a hit until Smals found room for his double in the final frame. Bryan went the distance, fanning seven and walking only two.

Narrows (7-1 overall, 3-0 district) took advantage of eight more PM errors in this game to tally eight unearned runs. The Green Wave finished with 10 hits, two each from Cooper Helvey, Sam McGlothlin and Elijah Knoetze.

That trio teamed up to give the Green Wave all the runs they needed in the first inning. With one out, Helvey and McGlothlin both singled. McGlothlin stole second base, and with two outs, Knoetze singled to right field to drive in the runs and give Narrows a 2-0 lead. The Green Wave went on to add four more runs in the second and three in each the fourth and fifth for the final margin.

BC 16, PM 9

The Blues took an early lead in its first road game since March 26, scoring three runs in the opening frame against Bath County. Adison Haynes was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in the first tally, and Kyle Smals followed with a walk to plate another run. Sam Griffin drove in the third with an infield single, and PM had a 3-0 advantage.

The Blues gave that lead away by surrendering six runs in the bottom half of the first, and when Bath County (6-3, 1-2) tallied two more runs in the second, the Chargers enjoyed an 8-3 lead. The Blues battled back to tie the game in their half of the third, however.

Haynes led off the inning with a single, and he scored when Colton Slagle drew a bases-loaded walk, one of five free passes issued to PM in the inning. Kyler Ramsey and Colby Camden each had one of those to chase home two more runs, and when Lane Luckton singled with two outs, the Blues had clawed back to knot the score at 8-8.

Then the familiar miscues came back to haunt the Blues. The Chargers scored twice in the home half of the third, taking advantage of three PM errors to move back in front to stay. Bath County tacked on two more runs in the fifth and four in the sixth, scoring the six runs on just three hits. PM had three more errors in those innings, along with three passed balls, two wild pitches, two walks and a hit batsman.

Offensively, the Blues were led by Haynes, who went 2-for-3 at the plate, scoring twice and driving in a run. Luckton finished the game with two RBIs for the Blues.

Owen Perdue and Gunnar Whiddon each had two hits to pace Bath County. Whiddon drove in four runs, while Perdue scored three times.

The Blues face another grueling week with a threegame slate on tap again. The Blues were scheduled to play host to Liberty (Bedford) on Monday and local rival Rockbridge County on yesterday, and they will travel to Eastern Montgomery to begin the second tour through the Pioneer District Thursday, with the game scheduled for 5 p.m. On Monday, the Blues will play at Jefferson Christian Academy at 5:30 p.m.