Lions shake off early troubles

By Liz Keller

Published: May 21, 2008

MINERAL — If Louisa County was fazed by its first inning, no one showed it.

The Lions shook off a rocky start, got some timely hits and rode the arm of Gunnar Carroll to a Jefferson District semifinal win over Orange County Tuesday night.

Carroll scattered four hits and Louisa scored four runs over the second and third innings to get past the Hornets, 5-3, and advance to the district title game against Fluvanna County on Thursday.

Things didn’t begin well for Louisa, as Orange scratched across two in the top of the first. Leadoff batter Evan Price reached base on a throwing error, then Colsten Bayless was safe on the squeeze play. Derrick Justice hit a single to left field to put runners on the corners with no outs. Cleanup hitter Lazaro Torres’ grounder to third was enough to get Bayless home, and Justice later scored on a passed ball.

Hornets’ starter D.J. Brown struck out Kurt Fleming and Dylan Szalankiewicz and Tyler Brookman was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into left field into a double.

But the Lions settled down, as Carroll got Tyler Waugh to fly out to center field and struck out the next two batters to get out of the second inning.

“One thing we’ve been talking about for the past week is keeping our composure and we did that tonight,” said Louisa County first-year coach Kevin Fisher. “We made the plays that we needed to make tonight.”

Jeff Buckler came up big for Louisa in the bottom half of the inning, belting a

two-run double to right field to tie the game.

The Lions carried that momentum into the third inning, as Kurt Fleming got on base on an error, then scored on Szalankiewicz’s double to the center field wall. Cleanup batter Kenny Fleming followed with an RBI double to the gap in left-center field, as Louisa took a lead it never relinquished.

Fluvanna County 3, Western Albemarle 1

In Mineral, the Flucos used a strong outing from Kyle Via and took advantage of the Warriors’ mistakes to come away with a victory in the Jefferson District semifinals.

Via allowed one hit over six innings, and the Flucos scored two runs in the top of the seventh.

“What a great game,” said Fluvanna County’s Mike Sheridan, who was named the district’s top coach. “It wasn’t pretty, but it is a W. We didn’t get a lot of hits, but we put pressure on them and put the ball in play, and that’s what you have to do in high school baseball.”

Tyler Denby had an RBI single for Fluvanna (13-9) and Robert Thompson, who got hit by a pitch twice, scored a run, while David Holden, who reached base on an error, scored another. Via recorded seven strikeouts and earned the win on the mound.

“I got ahead and used my changeup a lot,” Via said. “And our defense played well tonight.”

Western Albemarle’s Sam Riedesel also had a solid night, throwing five shutout innings. Nick Pegan added an RBI double for the Warriors.