By Jonathan Shelton

After a hard loss to Halifax last Friday, the Patrick County Cougars varsity baseball team hosted Magna Vista on Thursday. Both teams started off hot at bat, first with Magna Vista scoring four runs.

The Cougars answered back with seven runs in the first and one in the second to take an early 8-4 lead. Both teams struggled to get anything going in the third and fourth frame, but the Cougars finally managed to score two more runs, one from Seth Scott off of Colby Vernon’s hit and then Andrew Collins from Josh Cockram’s hit.

Magna Vista later scored a run off of an error in the fifth and added another in the sixth.

Patrick County was not finished though, with Vernon getting his second RBI, bringing in Collins for the last Cougar run, finishing the game with a controlling 11-6 win.

“This group (Magna Vista) is going to come out and put the ball in play and put the pressure on you,” coach Eric Renegar said. “And our objective tonight was making the routine plays and early on we didn’t do that. We put ourselves down 4-0, but after we settled down, we started swinging and didn’t stop after that. I was very proud of our guys for that. That was the guys stepping up and saying ‘We aren’t going to lose’ and that’s something good to see as a coach.

“Was there effort there? Yes. The effort is always there,” Renegar said. “I know our guys don’t come out with the intention of failing or losing, so I know the effort is there. On the mental side, though, we didn’t execute on the things we had talked about all week and we didn’t do the little things right to make this one not close.

“I think that is the real difference maker with us at this point. After taking a loss, it is hard to flush that away and move on, and especially with a long week of practice late during the season. The last thing these guys want to do is come out and practice for three straight days,” he said. “I think that lull played in more than the previous loss on tonight’s game and it took us one inning, three outs, but then boom, we are right back in it. If we can avoid that, we can be a very good baseball team.”

Dylan Phillips started pitching for the Cougars and pitched for 5 2/3 innings. Phillips gave up four hits, three walks, and five runs, along with striking out four Warriors. Phillips was the winning pitcher.

Thatcher Blankenship relieved Phillips and finished the game, allowing two hits, one walk, one run, and struck out four batters as well.

Andrew Collins led the Cougars, with three hits and three runs. Colby Vernon recorded two RBIs. Evan Hopkins scored two runs as well. Parker Brown, William Wood, Josh Cockram, Jared Brown, Jacob Mullis, and Seth Scott added runs of their own. Scott, Cockram, and Mullis had an RBI each for the Cougars.

Patrick County traveled to George Washington – Danville on Friday and lost 9-8.

The Cougars host Bassett on Thursday night at 5 p.m. in Patrick County’s senior night game.