The Shadow
Since the Valley Baseball League (VBL) All-Star break, the Covington Lumberjacks have won two out of their three games played.
Had it not been for an eighth inning collapse where the Harrisonburg Turks stunned the Lumberjacks and rallied from a 7-1 deficit to win 8-7, the team would be looking at a 3-0 start post the All-Star break.
Nonetheless, the Lumberjacks are in great position to clinch the final playoff spot in the South’s division. Note: the top four from each division advance to the playoffs.
As of right now the Lumberjacks have four games left where the team sits in the fourth place spot in the South division and has a 2.5 games lead on the Staunton Braves who have three games left to play. The two teams play each other tonight and if the Lumberjacks win, they will clinch a playoff spot and eliminate the Braves from playoff contention.
The Lumberjacks cannot reach higher than fourth place in the South. As of Thursday prior to the games, the team trails the Charlottesville TomSox who have a 5.5 games lead on the Lumberjacks.
The VBL playoffs begin on Monday, July 25th. The VBL regular season wraps up on Sunday, July 24th. The Lumberjacks close out the season with home games on Saturday and Sunday.
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On Wednesday, the Lumberjacks played two games. To start the day off the team traveled to New Market to play against the Woodstock River Bandits. Read further below for the results on that game.
In the teams night cap, the Lumberjacks traveled back down I-81 into Harrisonburg to take on the Turks.
After jumping ahead 7-1 following back to back innings in the sixth and seventh with three runs scored in each, the Lumberjacks were just six outs away from their first doubleheader sweep of the season and one-step closer to clinching a VBL playoff spot.
The Turks though, had other plans as the team stunned the Lumberjacks with a six-run inning to tie the game, including scoring five runs with two outs.
After recording the first out of the inning five pitches, Nathaniel Gorczyca, put the Lumberjacks in position with five outs away from their 18th victory of the season.
But then things started to spiral for Gorczyca and the Lumberjacks.
Following a one-out walk, Sam Schner (2-for-5) hit a single to put to runners on base. Mitchell Farris would follow with an RBI single to cut the deficit down to five runs.
With one out in the inning still, Gorczyca would walk Casey Smith. Michael Rosario (1-for-5) would follow with a one-out RBI single scoring Schner. On the same play via a throwing error by the Lumberjacks second baseman, Farris would also score. The Turks were now only down three runs.
Once trailing by six runs, the Turks had cut the deficit in half. Christian Ficca (1-for-4) would follow with an RBI single to bring the Turks within in two runs as Smith came in to score.
With Ficca on first base, the next two batters would reach for the Turks on a a fielder’s choice and a walk. The walk would end Gorzcyca’s outing after surrendering six runs on four hits in two-thirds of an inning.
Garrett Bonnett would come in relief of Gorzcyca. With the bases loaded and two outs, Bonnett would walk the first batter he faced scoring Rosario. The Turks were now only down one run. The next batter Bonnett faced, he walked Matthew Mamatas (1-for-2) which brought in the tying run. Bonnett would get out of the inning on a ground out, but the damage was already done by the Turks.
In the top of the ninth inning, Michael Piulats (3-for-5), nearly broke the tie as he came up just short of a solo home run as the ball was caught near the warning track.
With the score tied at 7-7, the Turks would get runners on second and third base with one out. Ficca would hit a fly ball to left centerfield deep enough to bring in the winning run from third base.
The Lumberjacks had been playing error free baseball prior to the eighth inning. In the final two innings the team committed three errors.
Despite the loss, the Lumberjacks out-hit the Turks 13-8. The Lumberjacks finished with three batters having two or more hits. Piulats and Nate Stocum (3-for-5) each had three hits. Piulats led the team in RBI’s with two.
The Lumberjacks left 10 stranded on base in the loss.
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Lumberjacks at Turks
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
CL 00 0 1 0 3 3 0 0 7 13 3
HT 00 0 0 1 0 0 6 1 8 8 2
Lumberjacks Batting
Batter AB H RBI R W SO
Pineyro 5 1 1 0 0 0
Hammonds 5 1 0 0 0 0
Stocum 5 3 0 1 0 1
Castillo 5 1 0 1 0 1
Baird 2 0 0 2 2 1
Piulats 5 3 2 1 0 0
Ward 5 1 0 0 0 3
Arnold 5 1 0 1 0 1
Pavelchak 4 2 1 1 0 0
TOTAL 41 13 4 7 2 7
Turks Batting
Batter AB H RBI R W SO
Schner 5 2 1 0 0 0
Farris 4 1 1 1 1 1
King 3 0 0 0 0 1
Smith 0 0 0 2 0 0
Rosario 5 1 1 1 0 1
Ficca 4 1 2 0 0 0
Lee 4 2 0 2 0 0
Williams 3 0 0 0 1 0
Warden 3 0 0 0 0 0
Stadler 0 0 1 0 1 0
Mamatas 2 1 2 1 2 0
TOTAL 33 8 7 8 6 3
Lumberjacks Pitching
Pitcher IP H R ER BB S0
Standen 4 2 0 0 0 2
Music 3 2 1 1 1 1
Gorczyca 0.2 4 6 6 3 0
Bonnett 0.1 0 0 0 2 0
Eischen (L) 0.2 0 1 0 0 0
TOTAL 8.2 8 8 7 6 3
Turks Pitching
Pitcher IP H R ER BB SO
McClure 4.2 6 1 1 1 3
Wolf 2.1 7 6 3 1 1
McClure 2 0 0 0 0 3
TOTAL 9 13 7 4 2 7
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To kick the day off the Lumberjacks shutout the River Bandits 7-0. This was a makeup game from a previous doubleheader in which the second game was rained out.
This game belonged to Lumberjacks starter, Richard Long (W, 2-1), who pitched a complete game (7 innings) shutout victory. Long allowed just one hit, while striking out five, and did not record a walk.
It was Long’s best performance of the season and longest outing on the season. Long previous high was five innings which he had done four times.
The Lumberjacks offensively put together 12 hits in the win as the team had four players with two hits each. The team also had six players with one RBI each. Gavin Baird (2-for-4) had the teams only extra base-hit with a double.
Already leading 4-0, the Lumberjacks added three insurance runs in the seventh inning via RBI singles from Stocum (2-for-4) and Landon Lucas (2-for-4). Baird scored the teams other run in the inning during a double-play.
Renzo Gonzalez (1-for-3) had the River Bandits lone hit in the game which came in the bottom of the fourth inning. Gonzalez was immediately thrown out at second base by Cole Ketzner (2-for-2).
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Lumberjacks at River Bandits
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
CL 1 0 1 0 0 2 3 7 12 0
RB 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4
Lumberjacks Batting
Batter AB H RBI R W SO
Pineyro 4 1 1 0 0 0
Hammonds 3 1 0 2 0 0
Ketzner 2 2 1 1 1 0
Baird 4 2 1 1 0 0
Stocum 4 2 1 0 0 0
Castillo 3 1 1 1 1 0
Mccladdie 4 1 0 1 0 1
Lucas 4 2 1 0 0 0
Ward 4 0 0 1 0 1
TOTAL 32 12 6 7 2 2
River Bandits Batting
Batter AB H RBI R W SO
Stinson 3 0 0 0 0 0
Gonzalez 3 1 0 0 0 1
Galvin 3 0 0 0 0 1
Spyke 2 0 0 0 0 1
Long 2 0 0 0 0 0
Wachs 2 0 0 0 0 0
Hernandez 2 0 0 0 0 1
Sanchez 2 0 0 0 0 1
Ritter 2 0 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 21 1 0 0 0 5
Lumberjacks Pitching
Pitcher IP H R ER BB S0
Long (W) 7 1 0 0 0 5
TOTAL 7 1 0 0 0 5
River Bandits Pitching
Pitcher IP H R ER BB SO
Gillis (L) 5 6 2 2 1 1
Lam 1 1 2 1 1 1
O’Neal 1 5 3 2 0 0
TOTAL 7 12 7 5 2 2
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As mentioned before, the Lumberjacks play against the Braves tonight in Staunton with playoff aspirations on the line.
After tonight the Lumberjacks have three games to go. On Friday the team plays its last away game against the Generals. On Saturday and Sunday the Lumberjacks close out the season at Casey Field with the TomSox on Saturday and what could be a playoff determining game against the Braves one last time. Each of the final three games begin at 7:00 p.m.
