James River at Cosby on Thursday

i say no way JR starts anyone other than Kirby...recall last year JR started Roberts and he didnt get out of the first or second inning... that was a game at Cosby...may have been the tournament.

the one game playoff would be a disaster for two teams heading into Regional play tryimg to not overuse pitchimg...seems it would be in the interest of the District to come up with some other tie breaker..runs allowed in head to head match up? Runs allowed for the season? Pick a number between one and five? anything put playing an extra game!

A tip of the cap to whomever scheduled this game as the last regualar season game with playoff implications. However, I have a 3.5 hour drive back to Midlothian today. Can you guys try to start the game at 4:45pm?

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i say no way JR starts anyone other than Kirby...recall last year JR started Roberts and he didnt get out of the first or second inning... that was a game at Cosby...may have been the tournament.

Totally 100% agree. I have to believe that both teams will do anythng (throw all their best pitchers) to win the district today. Each coach knows who their best pitcher is at this point in the season.....they see them practice everyday. I don't think there is any question JR will start Kirby. Cosby's Williams pitched 6 against Monacan on Tues, so he is most likely not starting. We'll soon see who Cosby starts. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bickford out there, but it wouldn't surprise me to see a Cosby senior out there either. See you at the game!

Kirby is the obvious choice to start for James River. But don’t count out Roberts.

I have to disagree with a couple of points from HSBASEBALLFAN. Roberts did not get knocked out after one or two innings against Cosby last year. He started the 1st regular season game at Cosby and went 5.6 innings, losing the lead and the game with two outs in the sixth.

Kirby also went 6 innings in the return match at James River, an extra inning win by Cosby. It was Schetz who got knocked out early in the district tournament final. Cosby 10-run ruled themn in that one I believe.

As for the extra tie-breaker game (if it was necessary), that game would not affect (IMHO) the regionals. There would be rest time before the regionals on Memorial Day. It would be the continuation of the district tournament that might be a concern. It would seem that a similar thing could happen to JR or Cosby like what happened to Hanover last year.

If you recall Hanover and Atlee tied for the regular season. A tie-breaker game was necessary. Atlee won the tie-breaker in extra innings (10+) and both teams ate up much of their pitching. Hanover did not have much pitching left for the tournament 1st round game against Lee-Davis and they lost against L-D’s ace.

The difference between the Capital and the Dominion is the 1st and 2nd place teams get byes in the first round of the Dominion tournament. Thus, JR and Cosby would most likely face an opponent’s #2 pitcher in the second round. I do think it best for both teams that it will be settled today and not have to worry about a tie-breaker game tomorrow or Saturday.

Today's game should be great. Get there early.

HSBASBALLFAN,

Just to clarify, there are NO tiebreakers to determine 1st place...not even head to head...you play the game. Two years ago, Atlee beat L-D twice but both finished in a tie and they played a tiebreaker game. Atlee lost the tiebreaker and then lost to Hanover in the first game of the tournament. As stated before, it worked against Hanover last year but last year, Atlee and Hanover split regular season games. If nothing else, there should at least a tiebreaker for head to head play.

That may be a district by district thing. I am pretty sure head-to-head would be used as a tie breaker if it were applicable. But it isn't this time anyway, at least not for first place. Maybe down the seedings, can't tell on that yet.

it is up to each district i have been told...to me almost seems unfair for top two to play an extra game week before regional tournament starts. JR and Cosby would have been in that situation last year if Jr had split regular season games with them

Wow, didn't see this one coming.

I really enjoy most JR-Cosby matchups because you can usually count on it being HS ball at its best. The lone exception was a 2008 game where JR made all sorts of errors and gave the game away by a wide margin.

Today was like that, only the shoe was on the other foot. The result was a totally not thrilling JR win, 11-1, over in 5 innings.

Ryan Bickford started for Cosby, got one out on 2 pitches, the third pitch resulted in a routine grounder to SS but it was thrown in the dirt for an E. Two batters later, a boot for a 2nd E. A bit later, a "room service" DP ball got one out, but the relay was thrown over everything for another missed out opportunity. A bit later, and outfielder overthrew a cutoff man for another run. It's amazing it was only 3-0 at that point. But it seemed like Cosby came out ... flat doesn't begin to cover it ... and when things went badly early the team collapsed in a way I haven't seen a Cosby team do, ever.

The first 9 JR batters hit ground balls, and while 3 got through for clean hits, I thought Bickford was doing fine until the long innings led to his getting a few balls up in the 3d for the first line drive hits, and he was pulled. There was a truly horrible call in the 2nd that, along with a batter hit with the bases loaded, had led to another JR run to make it 4-0. The roof caved in in the 3rd.

Kirby had difficulty with the HPU squeezing him. Cosby was doing a nice job running up his pitch count and in the end, he only went 4 innings. That would've been a great game plan had the defense done its job early. As it was, even after Tyler Carrico gave up 2 hits to start the 5th, he was able to go K, pop out, K to keep the game from going any further.

JR didn't really hit any big blasts, but they consistently spanked it in the holes and over the infield. JR bunted effectively including a well executed squeeze. Though one bunt was converted for a force at third until the horrible call noted above called it foul and opened up that inning.

What it means is, JR wins the Dominion regular season title and gets the automatic regional berth. Cosby, if it gets to the regional, will have to find a way to beat Michael Boyle and a hot hitting Deep Run squad. This was a tough day to do a no show.

I do add this to my file of games where, with overcast weather, for some reason one team just seems out of it from the get go. I don't know what causes that but I've lost count of how many times I've seen it happen. You don't normally see it with Cosby but it sure happened today.

Good summary. If Cosby plays to their potential, they'll get another shot at JR. Yesterdays game made me realize how loaded Cosby is with youth. They only had two starting seniors in the field (Meeker and Lowery).

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Kirby had difficulty with the HPU squeezing him. Cosby was doing a nice job running up his pitch count and in the end, he only went 4 innings.

I didn't see it that way. I thought Kirby was effectively wild with at least 4 or 5 walks when I had to leave to go to the Cosby/JR JV game in the middle of the 3rd. The umpire isn't going to give anyone the benefit of the doubt if they haven't proven command of their pitches. Truthfully, I think Kirby ran up the pitch count on himself. Only one ball found its way to a JR fielder before I left, the rest were walks or stikeouts.

Miltenberger at 2b is a senior and so is Carpenter who was DH...not to take away from your point as Cosby has pipeline of talent coming. The CF has unjeard of speed and is a sophomore....heard he ran a 4.4 40 at a football event. Next year tey have a big hole to fill behind the plate but plenty of youngsters everywhere else.