Blue Sox Gain First Sweep of the Season Over the Pirates

Jun. 7, 2009

On Sunday, the Central Virginia Blue Sox gained their first doubleheader sweep of the young season by beating the Pulaski Pirates by scores of 6-0 and 3-2. In the first game, the Blue Sox were led by a strong pitching performance by Richard Glover (Lynchburg), Jake Wade (Bridgewater) and Brock Wilson (Gardner Webb). Glover started the game for Central Virginia and pitched a solid 3 2/3 innings giving up no runs and 4 hits, while striking out three. Wade came in to get the final out of the fourth and then followed that with a perfect 5th and 6th innings, striking out two. Wilson came in to close it out in the seventh, giving up one single and striking out one.

The Blue Sox went down in order for the first two innings, but in the 3rd Graham Thacker (Roanoke) led off by drawing a walk. Tusculum's Payden Houser then laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Thacker to second. After Tyler Coleman (Virginia Intermont) singled Thacker over to third base, John Dansby (Virginia Intermont) drove him in for the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly. Later in the inning Mike Crowder (Tusculum) delivered a double to the right centerfield gap to drive in two more runs making the score 3-0. The Blue Sox came right back in the fourth and scored three more runs. Eric Conley (Tusculum) led off the inning with a double over the centerfielder's head and then scored on a single by Ryan Litz (Lynchburg). After Drew Elkins (Bridgewater) was hit by a pitch Thacker laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt allowing Coleman's second hit and RBI of the game. The pitching of Glover, Wade and Wilson did the rest.

In the nightcap, the Blue Sox squeezed by the Pirates in extra innings 3-2. DJ Turpin (Patrick Henry) started for Central Virginia and threw three strong innings giving up no runs, one hit and surrendering one walk. Matt Morgan (Lynchburg) came to the mound in the fourth and threw two shutout innings, with four of the six outs he recorded being strikeouts. Trey Finch (Ferrum) took the mound in the sixth, but with one out in the seventh, gave up two runs, allowing the Pirates to tie the game. The Blue Sox did not score in the bottom of the seventh and the game went into extra innings. With two outs in the top of the eighth, Finch had back to back walks and was relieved by Brian Knowles (Averett) who got a ground out to end the threat. In the bottom of the eighth, Wade led off by drawing a walk. After Knowles struck out, David Gaines (Lynchburg) was called to pinch hit and he grounded out to third base, advancing Wade to second. After Dansby was inserted to pinch run for Wade at second base, cleanup hitter Ryan Litz delivered a two-out walk-off single scoring Dansby and gaining the win for the Blue Sox. Brock Wilson led the hitting attack for the Blue Sox by going 2-3 and scoring one run.