State Tourament Scores....

We are posting updates from the three other games!

AAA Quarterfinals

Highlights from James River's 3-1 victory over Halifax now available at VirginiaPreps.com on our multimedia board (subscriber content)!

Halifax - James River HIGHLIGHTS

JRHS 3, Halifax 1
Battlefield 10, Mills Godwin 5
South County 12, N.River 11
GB 5, LB 4

On to the Semi-Finals!!!!

Should be a real showdown in both games. Sounds like SoCo can swing the bats and JR should have some good pitching available to try and slow them down.
That field they will play on is pretty unusual compared to what is around here. It is grass everywhere but the mound..basebaths are even grass. Outfield dimesions seem small but fences are over 20 feet tall.

My schedule got all screwed up so I ended up seeing the JR-Halifax game through 3 innings before having to head out. The VirginiaPreps.com video footage helps show what happened after I left.

After a quick top of the first, Casey Jones did what he does-- battle through an AB, foul several pitches and finally get on by a walk. # 2 guy popped up his bunt and Jones had to hold, ball dropped and 3B had an easy play on Jones at 2nd but went to 1st instead. Jones moved to 3rd on a groundout. After a walk, the pitcher made a soft move to first, his throw was a tad wide (pulled the 1B over) and Jones read it and stole home. 1B's throw was just into the lefty batter's box to let him get under. Next 2 batters reached on a single and an E, so it might not have been a difference maker in the game -- though it could have had he been out.

JR made it 2-0 after 2 when Nick Parnell singled, got bunted to second, took third on a WP and scored when Mac Caples fisted a 2-out 2-strike Texas Leaguer over SS.

JR kicked one ball in the 2nd but Scheetz pitched out of it. A bloop hit led off the third, then a sac bunt got thrown away to put runners at 1st/3rd with no outs. This led to an unearned run on a hit before Scheetz turned a bunt into a force out and got 2 K's to escape without further damage. (This kind of thing is what JR has to tighten up on if it wants to have any chance on Friday. Evidently South County is just too powerful to even think of giving them extra outs.)

From there Scheetz got through 2 more innings unscathed. Kirby snuffed them in the 6th and 7th with 5 K's. Jones put an insurance run up in the 6th when his slicing fly to left eluded the diving LF for an RBI triple.

From what I did see in person, the kid I had heard absolutely nothing about was Dylan Sons. He was tough. JR had him on the ropes in the first but after yielding one run he got out of a bases loaded jam. JR just barely got its 2nd and 3rd runs. This is a big lefty with solid stuff and he came to compete.

i got to see the end of the game. Halifax had two good pitchers they used both lefties. I liked the all blonde hair look among their players!

A couple of little things I saw that JR could have gotten hurt on - in 6th they had runner at 3b with no outs... #2 batter came up who is an excellent bunter...thought they should have executed a safety squeeze and made it 4-1. Instead they lined out...1 out, runner at 3b.
Next guy hits a hard ball that 1b has to knock down for a play at first - was a tough play and they were playing back...they get the guy at first and the runner stays at 3b....at third you have to score on a ground ball to the right side. Halifax gets the next guy out...runner stranded at 3b.
At this time of year every runs counts and you gotta get them when you have a chance

James River is always very conservative on the bases. It is something I view as a deficiency though I suppose it's just a matter of style to some. My observation is that this is one of the things that causes their more narrow defeats to Cosby, a team that gets after it in terms of bunting and running. And it's one reason why I said before that I don't know if they can go all the way this year.

BUT -- The guy on third in that situation, Casey Jones, is actually the guy who stole home earlier in the game. I was not there to see that play but have to imagine that from his angle there was some doubt as to whether the ball would be caught in the air, or else that particular guy would have definitely made the dash for home.