Dominion District, Week of April 7

Junior lefty Hunter Ackerman turned in his second consecutive brilliant performance, striking out 14 and allowing only 5 hits over 6 innings as Cosby beat L.C. Bird, 5-0. Ronnie Shaban closed, striking out 2 in the 7th, so that 16 of Bird's 21 outs in the game were by K.

James River had homers in each of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings to win going away at Midlothian, 12-2. Daniel Marrs finally got to pitch after waiting over 2 weeks through rainouts, and lit up scouts' RADAR guns with several 97's before settling into the 94-96 range. He went 4 innings, 4 hits (including a misplayed infield pop), 7 K's, 1 BB.

Ian Harvey had a 3-run shot to get JR the lead in the 2nd. Austin Stadler hit homers in each of the third and fourth innings. Stadler is now 14-21 on the year with 4 HR's, and in addition has been walked 4 times and plunked 3 times.

Midlothian has now allowed 39 runs in its three district games, so pitching is apparently going to be an ongoing issue for the Trojans, who now anchor last place with an 0-3 record in district play.

Also on Thursday, Frankie Snyder held Manchester to 4 hits and the Lancers committed 4 costly errors behind Chris Hardee to lose to Clover Hill, 5-2.

I saw in today's paper a game report where Huguenot played against John Marshall in a non-district game.

Unfortunately it does not appear that Huguenot will play a full schedule or return to district play.

Friday saw a makeup game with Manchester visiting L.C. Bird. Bird won a pitcher's duel against Manchester, 2-0, as Andrew Deal shut out the Lancers on 4 hits. Blake Houser allowed only 2 hits, both by Josh Karr, and struck out 14, but took the tough loss. Manchester played 2 games in 2 days and got only 4 hits in each game.

Standings at week's end:

1. Cosby 3-0
2. James River 2-1
2. Clover Hill 2-1
4. Manchester 2-2
5. L.C. Bird 2-3
6. Monacan 1-2
7. Midlothian 0-3

Do you know if Conner Kaufman has done any pitching for LC Bird? I was thinking he may be thier #3.

I don't know many of their players by name except Deal and the Karrs. When we played them, they threw a young lefty who looked pretty good to me but we seemed to have his number. I think I have also seen that name in some line scores in the paper, but unfortunately that's about all I can tell you.

Is he the young lefty? If so, I think he could expect to have plenty of success down the road. One tough start is nothing to get discouraged about, esp. if you have 2 more years to grow ahead of you.

No, he is a soph RHP/1B. Conner throw a nasty 75-80 knuckler!His has all the tools to be a very good HS pitcher... Except confidence, and that only comes thru experience as you know. He plays on the Braves with my son and I was hoping that he was getting a shot this year. I don't know the lefty.
PS:Midlo thanks for your advice on BIV, WWBA and everything else. I know you have been there-done that so to speak.