Early Upsets in Central Region

I know Deep Run is supposed to be the front runner in the Colonial District, but don't be suprised if they don't finish in first place in the district. They have some very tough competition between Freeman, Tucker, and Godwin. All three of those schools have a pitcher or two that could beat Deep Run easily.

Freeman has Godfrey and Valenzuela
Tucker has Gorman and Gonzales
Godwin has Basso

These are the pitchers that Deep Run will face all season long, so they better get used to in or they will be in for a rude awakening.

Not to mention Hermitage, who could has shocked Deep Run pretty much every season and have two pitchers as well that could defeat them in Brandon Taylor, and Chris Burnett, both of which have beaten Deep Run in previous years.

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MidloDad said...Thomas Deal beat L.C. Bird, 10-3. I realize TD has Togna as its # 1 pitcher, but the Dale team I saw at Glen Allen on Monday did not look like it could put 10 runs up against LCB. But ... is the published line score right? Did LCB really make 8 errors? Yikes!

The score is correct. Dale played well, hit well, and pitched well. Togna hit a screamer line drive home run that was over left field fence in a nanosecond. That ball was absolutely crushed. Bird did not play well overall, and this is what happens when you don't play a preseason scrimmage or warm-up game....you play flat. LCB will pick it up.

I was also surprised at the Monacan/Manchester score. Sounded like a good game to watch.

Not only did Boyle strike out 13, but he did not allow a hit. He actually threw 6 innings though, the 3rd-8th. He allowed 1 base runner and it was on a HBP. Rumor has it he was in the 90s last night at times

Radford got in on Boyle early and got a real steal. Hard to believe that kid's not going to an ACC/SEC program.

If he's 90+, as a lefty and with his strong breaking ball, the June draft is not out of the question either.

Posted this on the wrong thread by mistake. Oh well. I saw that #10 Prince George (by VirginiaPreps) lost to Henrico on Monday. Was it all the errors or are the projections a bit off?

BestGame, it was probably because preseason projections are worth little more than the paper they're written on, especially when you go past the top 3 or so.

Boyle looked incredible. Absolutely dominating and untouchable.

Godfrey threw great considering it was his first start in a very long time. I think he's got more power than before. Had some command issues (walked 3-4), but came right back with a strike and composure was great.

However, I believe The real story of the game can be summed up in 2 major points.

Brooks produced a routine ground ball that could have gotten Deep Run out of the 1st inning without giving up any runs. Instead, there was an error on the play, the next kid hit a double and Deep Run is suddenly in a 3 run hole.

Deep Run had the bases loaded with no outs twice later in the game with the opportunity to change the momentum - and could only manage to plate one run each time. Deep Run coach/player communication and execution was poor. Deep Run left at least a dozen runners stranded. If Deep Run doesn't improve their situational execution and hit any better, it will be a long season.

Finally, congrats to the parade of Freeman pitchers after Godfrey that got the job done!

The kid that came up after the error, and hit a 2 run double is the same kid that came up in the 9th with a man on second and one out and hit a single for his 3rd rbi of the night. Great clutch hitting Cole Hawkins.

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I know Deep Run is supposed to be the front runner in the Colonial District, but don't be suprised if they don't finish in first place in the district. They have some very tough competition between Freeman, Tucker, and Godwin. All three of those schools have a pitcher or two that could beat Deep Run easily.

Freeman has Godfrey and Valenzuela
Tucker has Gorman and Gonzales
Godwin has Basso

Agreed. I think the Colonial is up for grabs. Any 2 of these 4 could go to regionals.

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The kid that came up after the error, and hit a 2 run double is the same kid that came up in the 9th with a man on second and one out and hit a single for his 3rd rbi of the night. Great clutch hitting Cole Hawkins.

Did not realize it was the same kid. Great game Cole!

On TD vs LCB game:
I don't recall 8 errors by LCB, but it may have been that many. My recollection is that the majority of those errors came late in the game, well after Dale was in full control.
I'd be curious to know how many of Dale's 10 runs were actually earned; I'd guess the majority of them were earned the way they hit the ball that night.

Midlothian 10-8 over Powhatan

That's a great win for Midlothian. Powhatan is loaded with talent!

Tonight's marquee game was Cosby at Hanover. The polls I'd seen had Cosby # 3 and Hanover # 4 in the region starting the year, and with the game being at Hanover you could argue either way as to who should've been favored coming in.

The story of the first five innings was Cosby RHP Ryan Bickford, who put on a clinic about efficient pitching. Bickford went the first 5 innings in about 45 pitches, walking no one and inducing 2 DP's. Three of his innings had 6, 7 and 5 pitches respectively, and his highest inning was 13 pitches.

Cosby had gotten 3 in the third and then stretched it to 5-1 in the bottom of the 6th when all of a sudden the wheels fell off. Bickford started the inning with 2 routine grounders and a high fly down the RF line. Both grounders were thrown away and the fly bounced out of the RF's glove -- three consecutive errors to wake Hanover up and get them back in the game. After Bickford was lifted, there was yet another E when the 1B whiffed at a pickoff throw that had a shot at the runner. 2 more pickoff plays had runners cold as the inning progressed and both of those were also dropped. Some wild pitches by the reliever finished it off as Hanover took a 6-5 lead and held on to win it.

Hanover sophomore RHP Derek Casey was impressive, coming in in the third with bases loaded, no outs, to face the middle of Cosby's order. He got a K, a shallow pop that was allowed to drop, then a potential DP ball was thrown away, but he kept his composure to escape with Hanover only down 3-0. In hindsight this was an inning that really could've blown the game wide open, but keeping that from happening left Hanover within reach for the decisive 6th.

I can't remember Cosby ever having a game like this where they truly gave one away when it looked like they were cruising to a solid win. Hanover gets credit for not running up the flag and springing when the opportunity was given to them. They also showed some pitching depth. Childress looked good for 2 innings before he got in trouble in the 3rd, Casey was strong, and the guy who finished the last 3 innings (somebody help me with his name) really got it done in the clutch with some good stuff.

Was hanover's last pitcher Allen Ellis?

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Originally posted by YesReally:
Was hanover's last pitcher Allen Ellis?

Yes

Bird wins over Manchester 4-0. Brett Rogers went 2-3 and that was big since there wasnt many hits for either team. Bryce Harman pitched for Bird and threw a complete game and had 10ks.