MC in baseball regional

After securing the second seed in the Bull Run District tournament, Madison County received a bye into the semi-finals. The Mountaineers “hosted” George Mason on Wednesday, May 20. The tournament was in Strasburg.

Madison needed a win against the Mustangs to reach the finals. If that happened, and Strasburg beat Clarke County in the other semi-final, the Mountaineers would return to the Region B tournament.

In the top of the first, Mason scored a run on two hits and a balk to take the quick 1-0 lead. However, the Mountaineers wasted little time in answering back. Travis Warren and Matt Racer led off the bottom of the first with walks.

Evan Tucker “sac” bunted to move the runners to second and third. Dylan Shifflette then delivered a line drive double, plating Warren and moving Racer to third.

Will Taylor followed with a double of his own scoring Racer and Shifflette.

The big blow of the inning then followed. With the count at 2-1, Kyle Louk launched his first varsity home run over the left field fence. Jacob Houser flew out to right and Casey Campbell grounded out to second to end the first with Madison leading 5-1.

Dustin Kirby entered the game in relief of Madison starter Brandon Rutherford in the top of the second and held the Mustangs scoreless in the second, third and fourth innings.  Madison put the game out of reach in the fourth by scoring three more runs. Collin Tucker, Warren and Racer led of the fourth with back to back-to-back singles.

After a run scored on a fielder’s choice, Shifflette picked up two more RBIs with his second double of the game. Madison led 8-1 after 4 innings.
The Mustangs cut the led to 8-3 on the strength of a two-run homer by Andrew Lieber. Louk relieved Kirby on the mound and ended any Mason threat. Madison scored two more runs in the sixth to extend the lead to 10-3.

Warren led off with his third hit of the game. Racer reached on an error by the Mustang second baseman. Evan Tucker and Taylor picked up RBIs with singles to round out the MCHS scoring.

Mason added a run in the top of the seventh, but it was too little too late as the Mounties won 10-4 and moved onto the finals.

Strasburg defeated Clarke County 11-2 in the nightcap. The Ram victory set up a showdown in the finals between the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. More importantly, Madison was assured of its first trip to the Region B tournament since 2001.

MCHS struck first in the finals. In the second inning, Taylor reached first when he was hit by a pitch. Louk attempted to “sac” bunt but safely reached first when the Rams pitcher misplayed the ball. Taylor moved to third on the play. 

Houser then hit a ball back to the pitcher. Taylor got caught in a run down between third and home. Taylor was eventually tagged out but Louk moved to third and Houser ended up on second. Campbell followed with a run scoring single. MCHS was unable to further capitalize but led 1-0.

Strasburg answered with three runs in the bottom of the second. The Rams were the beneficiary of two hit batters, two walks and a timely two out hit. In the top of the third, Racer scored for the Mountaineers on Kirby’s sharp single to cut the lead to 3-2. However, the Rams responded with two more runs in the third on a homer by Riley McDonald, three more base on balls and another timely two out hit to take a 5-2 lead.

Casey Campbell led off the MCHS fourth with a solo home run cutting the lead to 5-3. That is as close as the Mountaineers would get. Strasburg tacked on five more runs to win the tournament 10-3. Strasburg benefitted from nine walks, four hit batters and two errors in the contest.

Madison traveled to Buffalo Gap to face the No. 1 seed from the Shenandoah District on Memorial Day. Results from the Monday, May 25 match-up were unavailable at press time.