James River and Cosby will face off Thursday night in the Dominion District tourney championship game, at L.C. Bird at 7:00 p.m., after they beat Manchester and Midlothian, respectively, last night. Both James River and Cosby will also advance to the Central Region tournament, irrespective of the outcome of Thursday's game.
James River spotted Manchester 3 runs in the top of the first, but scored in every one of its six at bats to build its lead to 8-3 before Manchester could score again, closing to 8-5 in the 6th. Austin Stadler did not have his best command in this outing, and that led to his yielding 5 earned runs, 1 more than he had given up all year prior to this game. But James River got 2 more runs to make it 10-5, and Chris Briere closed by retiring the last 4 batters with two K's and two week grounders. John Nance led the Rapids with 3 doubles and an intentional walk, while Tyler Gruhl also had three hits and a walk for a perfect night.
The nightcap was a barn burner. Tyler Wilson allowed only 3 hits and 3 walks for Midlothian, striking out 11 in 6 innings, but took the loss nonetheless. Cosby got an early run without benefit of a hit, then 2 more when a diving try for a slicing liner to right resulted in a triple that opened things up. Midlothian had hits in every inning off Cosby's Ronnie Shaban, but he put out fires repeatedly until Ryan Mallory's 2-run blast in the 6th. Midlothian got one final shot in the 7th, with the bases loaded, 2 outs and a full count. The batter hit a high bouncer that the third baseman charged and got to on the short hop. The ball kicked off his glove towards the pitcher's mound. With all runners in motion on the pitch, it appeared the tying run would score and the winning run was rounding third. But the third baseman recovered the ball and fired to first to end the game on a bang-bang call that sent Midlo's coach into a fury.
Cosby continued to show its relentless drive in this game, advancing to the district finale and the regionals despite having no seniors in its first year of existence. With Shaban presumably unable to throw on Thursday, James River would seem to have a big advantage due to its pitching depth, but one thing's for sure, Cosby will not roll over for James River, or for anybody.
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