Dragons blank Flucos

By Ryan Yemen Daily Progress correspondent
Published: May 7, 2008

STANARDSVILLE - No two baseball parks are the same, and it’s not uncommon to see a team making the most of its home-field advantage.
With a handful of left-handed hitters, William Monroe took full advantage of their short right-field fence on Tuesday.
The Greene Dragons (7-10-1, 4-6-0 Jefferson District) went deep to right field three times Wednesday en route to a 5-0 win over visiting Fluvanna County.
“We’ve been up and down,” said Monroe coach Marc Arrington. “But a win like that can get the momentum going. Who knows what can happen from here?”
Eric Utz was masterful in his complete-game shutout of the Flying Flucos (9-9, 5-5).
“I felt great out there,” Utz said. “I was able to locate my fastball, keep things low, and my defense was always behind me.”
The Dragons southpaw found himself in a handful of jams as Fluvanna had multiple runners in scoring position in the second, third and fifth innings.
But Utz was unfazed, wiggling his way out and ending two of those jams with strikeouts.
“He’s a mentally tough kid,” Arrington said. “When he gets in those situations he can battle through it.”
Monroe first drew blood in the second inning when lefty Travis Watson cranked the first pitch he saw over the fence for a two-run home run.
“It felt good to hit it,” Watson said of his round-tripper. “I hope it picks the team up, because we’ve got a tough game coming up against Louisa.”
Watson has played much of the season on the junior varsity team, but after his second-inning blast, Arrington plans to make him a permanent fixture in his lineup.
“Sometimes it takes a couple of pitches for young guys to adjust,” Arrington said with a grin. “On the first pitch, I think he adjusted pretty well. That was a big swing in a big situation.”
The Dragons picked up three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. Danny Morris and Utz provided the fireworks, hitting back-to-back homers, both of them over the right-field fence. Utz finished the day 2 for 3.
“They got all those left-handers, my right fielder’s back there praying, ‘Lord, please back up this fence five feet,” said Fluvanna coach Mike Sheridan.
The Flucos had their opportunities offensively, putting nine different runners into scoring position, but just couldn’t get past the Monroe defense.
“We had guys there, we just didn’t get the hit we needed to,” Sheridan said. “But we hit the ball hard, we just hit it at people. Every time we got someone in scoring position there were two outs, so we couldn’t manufacture the runs the way we would have liked.”
Robert Thompson was a bright spot in Sheridan’s lineup. The leadoff man went 2 for 4 and was the only Fluvanna player with multiple hits.
“We didn’t play a bad game,” Sheridan said. “It was a well-played game, and sometimes this happens. That’s the Jefferson District this year. There are no easy nights.”
With one of the best defenses in the district and its bats starting to come around, William Monroe is looking forward to the postseason. Utz and company are looking forward to the possibility of spoiling some seasons.
“I just have a good feeling about the [upcoming JD] tournament,” Utz said “We’re starting to come around as a team. People might look past us, but the way we’re practicing, playing defense, not committing errors, I think we might upset a few teams.”
Fluvanna plays host to Monticello on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
William Monroe hosts Louisa County today at 5 p.m.