JB overcomes rough first to beat 'Boro
After having to pull its starting pitcher after just five batters, it looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for James Buchanan on Tuesday.
Waynesboro's baseball team came out on fire, taking advantage of walks, a hit batter and a slew of key hits to go up by five runs after the top of the first inning.
But in came Hunter Spoonhour, who actually accounted for all 21 of JB's outs despite entering in relief, and he completely shut the Indians down. He gave his team every opportunity to earn the victory, and JB did just that. The Rockets exploded for 12 runs through the middle innings, including eight in the third frame, to claim a 13-6 Mid Penn Colonial Division victory.
"If you have a bad inning, hopefully you have it in the first inning," Rocket coach Dave Sanchez said. "We had plenty of time to come back, and I knew we have had our fair share of big innings this year. I thought if we got a couple guys on, we could get back in it."
The Rockets (9-8, 3-6 MPC) tied it up in the third inning with a bases-clearing double by Remi Spoonhour, who finished with four RBIs.
But it was the fourth inning where things really imploded for Waynesboro (12-5, 5-4 MPC), which went through three pitchers in the frame. JB scored eight runs on six hits, two errors, three walks and a hit batter.
"I thought our at-bats were great today; we jumped out to 5-0," Indian coach Greg Chandler said. "But same thing we did on Thursday against Boiling Springs, where we were up 3-0, it's like we get complacent. When we're good, we're good, but when we're bad, we're really bad."
JB catcher Dylan Sanders said, "We started finally getting on their pitcher. We sat back and learned to wait on our pitches. Things just started falling our way, and whenever one person gets a hit, it gets us all pumped up and wanting to get another one."
Once the Rockets gained the lead, Spoonhour did the rest of the work. Although he allowed seven hits and three walks, he also fanned seven.
"When I came in, I just knew I had to get the job done," Spoonhour said. "I thought I threw a good game. I threw a good many strikes, and I knew whenever a ball was hit on the ground, I had faith in everybody out there to make the play."