By Jonathan Shelton
The Patrick County Boys’ Varsity Baseball team had a rollercoaster of a week, playing at Tunstall on Tuesday and hosting Bassett on Thursday.
The Cougars traveled to play the Trojans, who were still the #1 team in the district. The Trojans only loss came earlier this season when they traveled to Patrick County. The Trojans were looking for revenge. Both teams were locked in with each other, going scoreless in the first inning.
The Cougars drew first blood, with Andrew Collins hitting a solo home run for the Cougars solo run in the game.
The Trojans responded with two runs of their own in the second inning. Both teams showed great defense in the third and fourth innings, keeping the score 2-1.
The Cougars had multiple chances to score in the fifth inning. The most noteworthy moment was when the bases were loaded with one out. Unfortunately, Patrick County was unable to capitalize. The Cougars attempted a suicide squeeze, which backfired after a bad bunt, and resulted in a double play for the Trojans, out at home and first.
Regaining the momentum, Tunstall scored two quick runs in the fifth inning.
Thatcher Blankenship relieved starting pitcher Dylan Phillips at the bottom of the fifth after two outs with one on base.
Tunstall immediately hit a single past first base for another Trojan run, and went on to score three more runs before the inning was over. The Trojans scored two runs in the sixth, making the score 10-1. The Cougars could not get going and came out with the loss.
Dylan Phillips pitched for 5 2/3 innings and allowed four runs off of four hits, three walks, and struck out four Trojans. Thatcher Blankenship pitched the remainder of the game and permitted six runs off of seven hits, walked four, and struck out one batter.
On Thursday, Patrick County hosted Bassett for “Senior Night,” hoping for a much better result. Both teams got off to a slow start. Neither team could put any runs on the board until the Cougars offense came alive, thanks to William Wood and Jared Brown. Wood got the first RBI, and brought in Kristian Ashburn for the first run in the bottom of the fifth. Brown proceeded to get an RBI of his own in the sixth, bringing Colby Vernon home for the second run. Those were the only two runs for Patrick County, but it was enough for a 2-0 shutout victory.
Nicolas Duncan pitched a remarkable game, allowing zero runs in the contest, as well as striking out 11 Bengals.
“Any time you send a starter out there, you need a quality start from them,” Coach Eric Renegar said. “He pitched the ball efficiently tonight, we had a lot of help in the bullpen. We had William in the bullpen, Seth in the bullpen, we had guys we could have went to. But when you have a guy pitching that good and allowing only a couple hits, you can’t really change anything. When a guy is grooving like that and he’s got that look in his face like he’s locked in, you cannot tell that kid he isn’t going out there.”
Jared Brown finished with one RBI and two hits, including a bunt that caught the Bassett defense napping, allowing him to get on base.
“Obviously, anytime you can get a team comfortable with their pitcher striking people out, you have a chance to change the dynamics of the game, you’ve got to make them make plays. They had a little miscommunication and that one play was the turning point of this ball game,” Renegar said.
“A win is a win. Look at the other side, you have to give those guys credit,” Renegar said. “Their pitcher came out and dominated us for most of the game. We let some things slide and others get away from us, but we didn’t let that affect us. We didn’t let it snowball to something that would drain our momentum. We just kept tacking away and came out with the win” he said.
“It has been the greatest privilege of my life coaching these seniors,” Renegar said. “This group means a lot to me because when I first got them, we went through the toughest baseball season I’ve ever been a part of, going 2-18. All of them stuck with it though; they didn’t shy away from challenge. They met every challenge through adversity, through all the negatives, and created positives to turn this program around. Not me, not any of the coaching staff. That group of seniors did.”
