HOT SPRINGS – “This was by far the most complete game we have played all season,” said Bath County baseball coach Kris Phillips following his team’s 12-1 five-inning win over Craig County Monday in the quarterfinals of the Pioneer District baseball tournament.
Starting pitcher Tyler Deeds scattered four hits over five innings, while the Chargers’ offense banged out 12 hits in the onslaught.
“We played solid defense, we hit the ball, ran the bases well and got a solid effort on the mound from Tyler,” added Phillips. “We will definitely win more baseball games if we continue to play like that.”
The Rockets jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the second inning, but the Chargers would respond with two runs of their own to take the lead for good in the home half of the inning.
Josh Robertson ripped a single to left field and moved to second after the ball was misplayed in left field.
Robertson moved to third after Ryan Plecker reached on a Craig County throwing error.
Deeds then helped his own cause by lifting a sacrifice fly to left field to plate Robertson and Jonah Ford followed with an RBI single to right field to give Bath a 2-1 lead.
Dillon Fry singled to lead off the bottom of the third for Bath County. Fry stole second and moved to third on a balk before scoring on Michael Criser’s RBI single. Derek Brinkley then stepped into the box and belted a two-run bomb to straight-away center field to increase the Chargers’ lead to 5-1.
Bath County put it away in the last of the fifth inning when they banged out six hits to plate seven runs.
Plecker opened the rally with a double and scored on Deeds’ RBI single. Ray Miller singled and Alex Fry was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.
Dillon Fry followed with a two-run single and Criser singled to put two aboard. Brinkley pushed across a run with a RBI groundout and Robertson was hit by a pitch.
Plecker ended what he started, ripping a two-run single to seal the win as the mercy rule went into effect.
Criser led the Chargers’ at the plate with a 3-for-4 day, scoring two runs and driving in one. Plecker and Fry both went 2-for-4, scoring two runs and driving in a pair.
Josh Looney led Craig County at the plate with a 2-for-2 day.
Deeds struck out three in picking up the win on the mound.
Bath County (8-8-1) advances to Wednesday’s semifinal round at Parry McCluer to take on James River.