The Shadow
On Tuesday, April 2, the Alleghany Cougar Varsity baseball team travelled to Buchanan to face off against the James River Knights in what would become a shutout game for the boys in blue.
Alleghany got off to an early lead thanks, in part, to the Knights pitcher who walked three Cougar players at the top of the first. After leadoff hitter, Elijah Weese was walked, Chris Harden secured a single on a bunt which allowed Weese to advance to second. Hunter DePriest, third in line at bat, was also walked, giving sophomore Brady May a golden opportunity to bat with bases loaded. May swung on the fastball, sending the ball soaring in a sacrifice fly that drove Weese home and allowed Harden to Advance to third while DePriest secured second. Cougars lead, 1-0. During a wild pitch to Kole Caldwell, Harden scored. Caldwell ended up getting walked by the pitcher, but would later go on to score, giving Alleghany a nice 3-0 cushion at the bottom of the third when the Knights stepped up to the plate to see if they could close the gap. They would not, going scoreless in the first inning with Brady May pitching to just 4 batters.
The second inning provided a similar play-by-play, this time with Brycen Griffith getting the walk. Griffith went on to score after Harden singled on a hard ground ball to right field. Harden would create a sense of deja vu when he wound up on third base for a second time and —for a second time— successfully stole home. Soon after, Alleghany got its third out and moved things out to the field. However, they wouldn’t stay there long, giving fans the unique experience of a 3-up, 3-out defense. First baseman, Kole Caldwell caught a pop fly, and on the next two plays, shortstop Elijah Weese stopped grounders and threw them to 1st base, stopping the runners in their tracks.
Alleghany opened up the third inning with a ground out, but the bad luck wouldn’t last long. Graham Brewster, second at bat in the inning, was walked before Carson Brown doubled on a fly ball to right field while Brewster advanced to third. Afterwards, Griffith was walked, the bases were loaded with Brewster on third and Brown on second. After Harden was hit by a pitch, Brewster was able to score, and the bases were loaded once again with Hunter DePriest at bat. DePriest doubled on a line drive to center field, allowing Harden, Brown, and Griffith to score. After a fly out, the Cougars were up 9-0 going into the bottom of the third. Three outs later, the Knights were scoreless once again going into the fourth inning.
The fourth inning ran much the same as the second, with the Cougars scoring two runs and disallowing any for the James River Knights. At the top of the fifth, it was looking bleak for the Knights as the Cougars led 11-0. With one run for Alleghany at the top of the fifth, the Knights went into the bottom with one goal in mind: score at least 3 runs to avoid the slaughter rule being implemented which would end the game early. The Knights were unsuccessful, and the Cougars won the ballgame, 12-0.
The Varsity Cougars have a current season record of 5-1 and will be looking to make it 6-1 when they face the Patrick County Cougars on Tuesday, April 9, at 5pm at Casey Field.
