BRISTOL, Va. - It was 2-1 in favor of Virginia High heading to the sixth inning against Lebanon on Thursday night at DeVault Stadium.
"A great, great ball game, a good atmosphere, great crowd," Virginia High head coach Adam Moore said. "I felt both teams were competing hard and then the sixth inning approach, the leadoff batter pops the ball up and we drop it. Then the floodgates commenced to open, we hung our heads, we didn't go get balls, we didn't want balls and there you go, there is your recipe for disaster."
All the surging Pioneers did in the sixth was score 13 runs on 10 hits and five errors on its way to a 15-6 Southwest District victory over the Bearcats to remain undefeated in the Southwest District. It was the Pioneers' fifth straight win with four more SWD games remaining, including today at Marion.
"I think just confidence as the season goes on," Lebanon starting pitcher Dagan Barton, who scattered four hits and struck out six over four innings before being replaced by Nathan "Tater" Phillips. "You receive higher confidence when you receive better pitching and win big games, you get more confidence from that. We are two weeks out from the postseason right now so I knew we all had to lock in eventually and it is starting to come around right now so it feels good."
Virginia High (8-7, 4-3) pushed two runs across in the fourth inning off Barton on consecutive hits by Ollie Foy, Bhradeon Meredith and Devin Lathrop to load the bases. Cody Griffith bounced into an out to score a run and a second run crossed the plate on a wild pitch.
"It felt good, I just came out there focused on throwing strikes and trusting my defense behind me," said Barton, who drew a two-out walk in the first, with courtesy runner Carter Hess scoring on a bad-hop double to right field by Eli Breeding for an early 1-0 lead. "I was solid for the first three innings and they found a couple of holes there in the fourth and they put together a couple of runs, but I had faith in us the whole time. I knew we were going to come back and get the win."
Just maybe not the way they did it.
"It was a real close win there for a while," Lebanon head coach Cody Compton said. "We just kind of showed up and were going through the motions for a little while and we can't do that against good ball teams. We finally got settled in and found pitches we could drive. That is what we did, we opened it up there."
Seventeen batters came to the plate in the sixth, with Phillips and Luke Garrett each collecting a double, single and driving three runs. In addition to those 10 hits, five errors and three walks were costly for the Bearcats.
"We hit the ball. We took advantage of a few mistakes that they had," Compton said. "They didn't make those mistakes early on, but we took advantage of those later and we hit it. We hit it hard too. 'Tater' came through there, we were still down 2-1 and had runners on second and third and he got the hit to put us ahead."
After early struggles at the plate, Barton has regained his batting stroke, collecting four hits, three runs and two RBIs for the Pioneers.
"At the early part of the season I just found a lot of bad luck, just hitting straight to guys," Barton said. "Here recently, the past couple of weeks, it seems like it is just finding holes and I couldn't be more grateful for it."
Phillips, who pitched in the fifth inning to pick up the win, had three hits and drove in four runs. Breeding had three hits and drove in two runs. Toby Baker had one of five Lebanon doubles and scored twice, a contribution noticed by Phillips, who pitched Lebanon to the Class 1 state championship game victory last season over Auburn.
"That is a good team win, glad to see guys in certainly situations step up and do something like Toby did," Phillips said. "That is great, that is what we have wanted from Toby since the beginning, we knew he could help us and he helped us a lot...
"Give it to (Virginia High), they fight hard. I love playing against them, they are probably one of my favorite teams to play against. It is a dogfight every time with them."
Lebanon (10-5, 6-0) was shaky on the mound over the final two innings, but Barton and Phillips combined to scatter five hits and struck out seven over the opening five innings for the Pioneers, which added a final run in the seventh on an RBI single by Phillips.
"That was exactly what we needed. Dagan comes out and gives us four good innings and that is all we can ask for," Compton said. "We have just got to find somebody to come in after him and throw strikes. 'Tater' did a good job coming in after him, but we have got another district game tomorrow so I didn't want to leave him out there, especially after opening it up the way we did."
Virginia High finished with six hits, including two each by Foy and Lathrop, who had a double. Cooper McVey also reached four times on a single and three walks. Meredith scored two runs and EJ Hucks drew a bases-loaded walk and Luke Whitt was hit by a pitch with the bases full. Like most teams this time of year, the Bearcats' pitching has been taxed this week with a rivalry game still on tap today at Abingdon.
"We knew this week was going to be pretty hard and tough. You almost have to run everybody to the limits," said Moore, whose Bearcats started southpaw Foy, who allowed just four hits and one run before running into trouble in the sixth. "Tonight we were running Ollie and he was on. I thought Ollie threw really well, he was in command.
"It was back and forth with those guys and we executed to take the lead on some small things and we were into it until that adversity hit in the sixth and that is where we lost control of yourselves emotionally. I credit Lebanon for that because they are used to being in big moments and the difference is they want to make plays and they can close you out and make you pay for mistakes."
Lebanon, which rallied to defeat Virginia High, 3-2, in early April, yearns for more postseason success, winning the Class 2 state title in 2021 and the Class 1 crown last season. The Pioneers are back in Class 2 this season.
"We have got to battle every single day, we have to come ready to play," Phillips said. "This ain't 1A ball anymore, that is not a knock to them, but up here guys are more mature so coaching is a little bit tougher. We have just got to play hard. I think if we play hard we have got what it takes, but it just matters if we come out and do the little things well."