Who won?

I wasn't there but heard Cosby won. Don't know the score but they said it wasn't a close game.

Dale over Prince George 5-2 I believe.

Cullen had a strong outing. Very solid.

I see in the paper that Cosby won 17-5, they must be playing pretty well.

It was definitely a contrast. Cosby's starter got off to a rough first inning and gave up three runs. JR's Kirby came out amped up and smoked the first 4 Cosby hitters of the game.

From that point, Cosby broke through, kept pounding, and JR collapsed. It was definitely a case of a team that depends on freshmen and sophomores being overmatched by a team that is not only talented but experienced and well drilled as well.

The key play to me was top 3, then 3-1, Cosby with 2 outs and runners at 2nd & 3rd. Batter takes a full cut but gets the ball off the end of the bat. CF breaks back, can't recover and the pop-up drops in for a hit and 2 RBI to tie it. All of a sudden, nothing works for JR. There are hits, there are E's, there are BB's, you name it. Several guys in a row reach base, it ends up 6-3 before they got them out, and from there on Cosby just kept hitting and JR kept making fielding mistakes. Cosby's starter settled in and they got solid relief, too, so JR never really got much more offensively.

I would say that Cosby is just way ahead of JR right now, and the only way JR can beat them (as they did, 1-0, earlier this year) is if JR plays perfectly AND maybe gets a few breaks. A game like yesterday's shows how fragile a young team can be. One breakthrough play and the spell was broken, what was a lead became a distant memory in short order, and before you knew it JR fans were just hoping it would end.

SOunds like Cosby has pulled it together- even working its way up to a #2 ranking in the region.
Do you think they have anything for the #1 team, Manchester?

Is Cosby a Senior heavy team or are some of the contributors coming back next season?

I'm not exactly sure on number of Seniors for Cosby, but I think several starters return next year. The 2 big names are Seniors (Shifflet, Mooney) but I think they are Soph and Jr heavy. Which should be scary to the other teams in the Dominion. JR is even younger and their JV's are pretty darn good. Those two teams will be filthy the next few years....

Cosby JV beat JR JV yesterday 10-0

Cosby beat them earlier in the year pretty good as well but hey, you never know what they are looking at with JV as far as pitching and line ups go in a game.

No doubt about it...these two teams are going to be pretty nasty over the next couple of years with lots of talent still to reach the varsity level and talent that is there now maturing.

Should be fun to watch.

I know Cosby has several seniors: Shifflett, Mooney, McKay, Vacca, Daffron, Sisk, Beyer that I can think of right off the top of my head. The underclassmen they have are strong: Lowery, Perry, and Hamlett are all very good players and they will have McQueen, Carpenter, & Birnbaum for pitching next year and maybe several coming up from JV. Should be very good next year too but this may be "their year" with as many seniors as they have. It does seem like there is a big talent pool over there and find it hard to believe that they won't be in contention any time soon.

Sounds like they will be a tough opponent if they can get in the Regionals. I keep seeing some of those underclassmen you named in the box scores- will definitely continue to compete sounds like.
Have also heard alot about their coach who seems to get them ready to play-
Sometimes when there is such a good pool the competition to get on the field makes the players work harder

I haven't really seen any James River JV games, but are you sure they're good? With so many frosh and sophs on varsity, it's hard to imagine there was much left to stock a JV team.

Typically whether you're good at the JV level has more to do with how heavily stocked you are in the junior and senior classes than with how heavily stocked you are in the 8th-10th grades.

BTW, when did Cosby's Jake Luke Lowery get so darned big? He hit a BOMB to RCF yesterday. Just a sophomore, folks!

As to Manchester v. Cosby, I wouldn't hazard a guess as to how one single-elimination playoff game might turn out. I would, however, buy a ticket to that game, and if that matchup occurs I definitely will. I can't get to their matchup tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised if they both hold back their ace pitchers so that the other team doesn't get to see him before playoff time. But you never know. Hope somebody who gets to that one will report here.

It's Luke Lowery and, yes, he has grown quite a bit. He will catch for the Canes South 16's this summer and fall.

Sorry, I've known Jake so long my fingers went on autopilot. Corrected up there now.

Jake is having a solid year at JMU.

I had the pleasure of coaching Jake from 10u to 14u (almost 5 years), the last 2 alongside his dad. Always fun to see a great kid like that prosper.

Luke even filled in for us back in the day, when we had someone go down unexpectedly and we found ourselves short. He could hit the big boys even then! Everyone pretty much knew he'd always be special.

P.S.

You guys should look into getting Luke to PG's National Underclass in June. Contact PGStaff for details.

We have 3 2012's Catchers who have requested Underclass invites.

quote:

I haven't really seen any James River JV games, but are you sure they're good? With so many frosh and sophs on varsity, it's hard to imagine there was much left to stock a JV team.

I am posting a little late but the James River JV team went 17-3, the second best JV record since the State Champion '07-'08 teams were on JV. Two of the losses were to Cosby. One game was fairly close, and the other, well, I think JR forgot to show up (keewartson hit a triple, but that was as far as they got). This record was with the starting catcher out mid-season with a bad hammy and the stud pitcher partly out with a back disk issue. Starting short stop, left fielder and catcher at mid-season were EIGTH GRADERS.

***that would be EIGHTH graders.....