Baseball splits games with Hornets

HEIDI NAYLOR/ THE CAPTAIN'S LOG

This past Saturday, at Captains Park, the No. 2 ranked baseball team faced off against the Shenandoah Hornets. The Hornets are the No. 1 ranked team for Division III, and the game between these two teams definitely lived up to the hype surrounding it all week. The Captains fell off towards the end of the game as they lost at the hands of the Hornets 12-7. The game was back and forth to the very end, as sophomore designated hitter Steven Keener explained, “It was a dog fight, they are a really good team.”

Junior pitcher Sean Chitsaz got the start on the mound for the Captains against a very powerful Shenandoah lineup. It did not take long for Chitsaz to get in the thick of things, as the Hornets’ hitters tested him early. In the first inning Chitsaz made a spectacular catch, as he caught a line drive off the bat of a Shenandoah hitter that was headed directly towards his head. During the first two innings of the game neither team could find that extra push to get their batters home and put runs on the board. That all changed during the top of the third inning when the Hornets struck to open up the scoring.

With a man on third base and one out, Shenandoah hit a ground ball to freshman shortstop Billy Steel giving the batter a run batted in, as the runner advanced home. The next inning Shenandoah struck again as the Hornets’ third baseman hit a towering home run over the left center wall, giving the Hornets a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the fourth inning the Captains responded with runs of their own. With the bases loaded, junior outfielder Connor Madden got hold of a ball and drove it to the outfield, scoring two runs and tying the game.

The Captains added three more runs in the inning, one off a wild pitch, and two more on a base hit off the bat of junior catcher Ben Linda. The next inning, the Hornets teed off on the Captains, scoring three runs off a double and a two-run homer, tying the game once again at five each. In the bottom of the fifth the Captains tacked on another run making the game 6-5 in their favor. In the top of the sixth inning, the Captains made their first pitching change of the game as sophomore pitcher Rich Lindsay took the mound.

The first pitch that he threw did not go as planned, as the Shenandoah batter drilled a towering home run over the wall tying the game once again.

“I threw a fastball and I didn’t keep the ball down, after that I only threw sliders,” said Lindsay. After a ball was over thrown in an attempt to get a base runner out, another runner scored. The Hornets would then perfectly execute a bunt to score another run, giving the Hornets the lead 8-6. During the top of the eighth inning the Hornets began to add insurance runs to seal their victory over the Captains, as they scored four more runs in the inning.

The Captains kept fighting, as junior center fielder Shannon Mark hit a bomb toward the centerfield wall which was caught right on the warning track. The Captains could only manage to add one more run during the rest of the game.

“I saw fastballs and change-ups all day. I turned on the fastball and thought it was gone,” said Mark. Shenandoah’s pitching was on point, and Keener agreed, “It was really good, we like hitting fastballs, but we couldn’t get on a cruise of hits.”

On Sunday, the Captains fought back with a win to split the series with the Hornets. Designated hitter Steven Keener hit a line drive down the line that sparked the Captains’ rally, giving them a 5-3 lead.

The fans at Captains Park were on their feet as the final pitch was thrown, which ended with a Shenandoah hitter grounding out to second to end the game.

The Captains face Bridgewater and Randolph Macon this week before beginning the USA South tournament.

Posted by Cody Lloyd on Apr 6 2011. Filed under Baseball, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.