The Shadow
HARRISONBURG – Last Monday night, playing on the road as the home team in a doubleheader against Harrisonburg, the Turks and Lumberjacks split a doubleheader which put the Jacks’ record to 19-20 at the time, while the Turks had already clinched a playoff spot from the South division.
At the time Covington was still in position for a potential playoff spot.
Then the twists and turns, weather, and heartbreak all sat in.
Over in Culpeper, the TomSox (Charlottesville) and Cavaliers (Culpepper) were having a Valley Baseball League game as well with playoff implications on the line. The TomSox already clinched the South Division championship, but the Cavs were vying for that final playoff spot with Covington.
Culpepper led 2-1 in the top of the 7th inning. Then Charlottesville, showcasing why they were the South Divisions best team, erupted for five runs in the inning to take a 6-2 lead.
In the bottom of the 7th inning with the Cavaliers batting the weather took over. It began to pour down rain at Culpepper High School and the umpires had to call the game off.
In doing so, the five runs scored by the TomSox from the top of the inning in the 7th were wiped away as if the inning never happened. The game reverted back to the score entering the top of the inning with the Cavaliers holding a 2-1 lead and that ended up being the final score.
Now in any sport you have to play it out to see what the final score could be, but had it stand, and no more runs scored and if Charlottesville had defeated Culpepper, then both the Lumberjacks and the Cavaliers would have been tied at a win-loss record of 19-20.
The two teams, Covington and Culpepper, were set already to play the final regular season game at Casey Field on that Tuesday of last week and the winner would have determined who earned the final VBL playoff spot.
With Culpepper getting the score reverted back to 2-1 against Charlottesville in their Monday game, the Cavaliers moved their record to 20-19 and put themselves ahead of Covington by one game.
That would still set up an epic final regular season finale the next day to determine the final playoff team.
Wrong.
With Culpepper sitting at 20-19 and Covington at 19-20, the Cavaliers even with a loss would clinch the final playoff spot.
The Cavaliers forfeited the Tuesday game against the Lumberjacks as they did not need to play it out and risk any potential injuries.
Why did Culpepper get in the playoffs? Even by forfeiting, the Cavaliers and Lumberjacks were tied head-to-head with both teams winning four games against one another.
This then brought in the second tiebreaker situation with who had the better record against the top team from the South Division. Culpepper defeated Charlottesville four times, while Covington only beat them twice.
It was a no brainer for the Cavaliers to forfeit the final game. Terrible for the fans not being able to get one last game at Casey Field, but smart on the Cavs’ organization to protect their players.
It is just unfortunate that despite not knowing how the game would have ended between Charlottesville and Culpepper, that the VBL fans were robbed of what could have been an epic showdown for the final game of the regular season.
Covington finished their 2024 VBL season at 20-20.
