A Gordonsville runner is safe at first base.
photo by Greg Davick
The Boyd-Buchanan baseball team picked a terrible time to play one of their worst games of the season.
Facing the Gordonsville Tigers at home in the Sectional round with a berth in next week's state tournament on the line, the Buccaneers just didn't look like the team that had won 24 of their first 29 games.
As a result, the Tigers are the ones celebrating and making plans for Murfreesboro after an 11-6 victory in a game played on a spectacular and sunny Saturday afternoon in front of a hearty crowd.
The Tigers entered Saturday's game with a losing record, having won just 14 of their 33 games. But they played pretty good baseball on the day when it counted most and that 150-mile ride home probably won't seem quite as long.
"Everybody knows we have a losing record, but we've had great effort in the last three weeks. We've worked a long time to get to this point as this will be our first trip to the state baseball tournament," said Gordonsville coach Mac Petty after getting doused with a cooler of ice water once the game ended.
"We may not have the best team, but we're a scrappy bunch. Reaching the state tournament is a goal we've had for a long time. We feel like we belong as we've earned the right to be there," he continued.
Sophomore Hunter Davis wasn't exactly spectacular, but he was more than good enough as he allowed all six runs on 11 hits while striking out three and walking five.
He walked Seth Rogers and Brandon Willingham to lead off the seventh and was replaced by Lake Underwood, who proceeded to strike out the next two and get the final out on a harmless grounder to second.
Underwood was the hitting star for the Tigers as his two-run homer into the weeping willow tree just to the right of the scoreboard in the fifth inning allowed his team to regain the lead at 5-4. His bases-loaded double in the sixth helped his team score six runs to put the game out of reach for the Buccaneers.
"That's only the second home run we've hit all season, but I was talking to Lake before the game and I told him I hoped he'd hit one in that tree," added the Gordonsville coach.
Cooper Hodge, who had nothing to show for two hard-hit liners in his second and third at-bats, finally got one to fall in the bottom of the sixth and it drove in Thomas Baker and Cade Evans, but it wasn't nearly enough for the Bucs as Davis got a grounder to third to end the inning.
Gordonsville took a 3-0 lead in the second as Jake Pierce drove in the first run with a bunt single before Mitchell Kirby drove in the last two with another single up the middle.
Rogers led off the Boyd-Buchanan second with a double and scored on a two-out single by E.J. Matthews and the difference was 3-1 after two innings.
The Bucs tied it in the third when Rogers and Brandon Willingham had back-to-back singles to left to drive in Thomas Baker and Colby Morgan and they even took the lead in the fourth when Matthews led off with a towering solo homer to right.
Underwood's two-run homer in the fifth returned the lead to the visitors before they put icing on the cake by sending 11 hitters to the plate and scoring six runs in the sixth.
Boyd-Buchanan coach Taylor Gilley had a long post-game chat with his team, but he was matter of fact with his comments.
"We just beat ourselves today as we had too many base-running mistakes and we had too many errors in the field. We just shot ourselves in the foot as we didn't do the little things right," Gilley expressed later.
"They jumped on us early, which kind of surprised me, but I didn't panic as I knew there was a lot of game left, but we just didn't execute at all today. We had a great season and have a lot to be proud of, but we just didn't have one of our better showings today," he added.
The Tigers finished with a dozen hits, including Bobby Parliment, Justin Vaden, Devin Goodwin, Pierce and Underwood with two each.
Boyd-Buchanan finished with 11 hits, including three from Matthews and two each from Rogers and Willingham.
Davis was the winning pitcher while southpaw Casey Pate was the loser in relief.
GORDONSVILLE 030 236 0 -- 11 12 1
BOYD-BUCHANAN 012 102 0 -- 6 11 4
Davis, Underwood (7) and Vaden; Rogers, Pate (3), Evans (6) and Hodge.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)