Lions stay perfect in district action

By Ryan Yemen Daily Progress correspondent
Published: April 18, 2008

MINERAL — As defending Jefferson District champions, the expectations for the 2008 edition of the Louisa County baseball team are lofty. 
“It’s going to be tough,” said Lions first-year coach Kevin Fisher. “Teams are going to be aiming for us. If we don’t bring our ‘A’ game, it might slip away. You never know what’s going to happen. Baseball is a funny game.”
Be that as it may, halfway through the season, the Louisa has met the lofty expectations. The Lions made quick work of visiting Fluvanna County to remain perfect in the district with a 10-2 victory.
The Lions (10-3, 5-0) provided pitcher Tyler Brookman plenty of early run support by jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning. It was more than enough as Brookman had a fantastic outing on the mound.
“I was confident tonight,” Brookman said. “I was throwing the ball well. I got ahead with my fastball and was able to finish them off with the curve. We had a lot of success throwing the fastball inside last time we played them, so that’s what I did tonight, and it worked.”
Brookman threw six strong innings, striking out six batters and giving up just two runs on four hits. The senior didn’t just contribute on the hill, tallying two RBI in the second inning on a single to left field.
“Tyler’s been throwing real well all year long, but we hadn’t put much defense behind him,” Fisher said. “He was doing a good job of getting ahead with his fastball, and then sneaking in that curveball. His location was real good.”
Louisa’s Dylan Szalankiewicz provided his usual offense. The Lions third baseman went 1 for 2 with three RBI — two on a second-inning double, and one in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly.
“We’re really working on situational things right now,” Szalankiewicz said. “We’re doing things like hitting sacrifice flies, or hitting the ball into to right field to try and score all those runners on base. I feel really confident that in any situation we have all of hitters can get the job done and drive in some runs.”
Louisa had four different batters finish the night with at least two RBI.
While Fluvanna (6-7, 2-3) committed just one fielding error, coach Mike Sheridan thought his team could have made a few more plays to keep things competitive.
“You can’t make mistakes against a good team,” Sheridan said. “I thought we made three or four mistakes, and every time we did, they capitalized. We had a couple balls we could have caught. They’d have been tough plays, but still.”
After surrendering five runs in the second inning, Fluvanna was bit again in the fifth. Louisa managed to pour on four more two-out runs.
“If we play a little bit better defense than it’s a one-one ball game,” Sheridan said. “But it’s been a busy couple of weeks. We’ve played seven ball games in 10 days. We’ve been busy. But I’m still disappointed we lost this game.”
Fluvanna struggled at the plate, and it didn’t help that Louisa played perfect defense. Of the many things the Lions did well Friday night, their hard work on defense made Fisher the most proud.
“It’s good to see us finally playing the glove,” Fisher said. “That’s two games in a row without an error. We’ve been focused and it’s shown. In games that we haven’t been focused, it’s been tough on us.”
Driving in the two runs for Fluvanna were Tyler Denby and Ryan Foster. Denby brought home a run on a single in the top of the third. Foster drove in his in the sixth with a single to left field.
Fluvanna next plays at home against Orange County on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
Louisa hosts William Monroe on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.