Late comeback puts an end to Goochland’s season

ROBBY FLETCHER

Sports Editor

You couldn’t ask for a better playoff atmosphere at Caroline Stadium, where the Goochland Bulldogs baseball team met the Caroline Cavaliers for a chance at a trip to the Class 3, Region B Regional Tournament semifinals.

The Bulldogs and Cavs had met once before this year in their season debuts on March 14, a game that the Cavs won handily in a 12-2 final. A lot has transpired since then between the two teams, with the Bulldogs crawling out of a 1-7 hole to finish the regular season winning eight of their last 12 games and the Cavs having both five-game winning and losing streaks during the season but finishing with wins in four of their last five games.

All those experiences accumulated in a rematch with win-or-go-home stakes, and while a five-run fourth inning helped the Bulldogs lead by three runs late in the game, the Cavs pulled off a last-gasp comeback in the bottom of the seventh to steal the win and add at least one more game to their season schedule.

The Bulldogs scored the first run in the opening inning on a Jackson Bell fly out, but the lead lasted up until the bottom of the third when the Cavs railed off three runs after setting up in a bases loaded situation with one out. After a RBI single and a groundout made the lead switch hands in favor of the home team, a wild sequence on a fielder’s choice grounder found Caroline sophomore Baylor Storke in no man’s land between third and home, but he managed to avoid the rundown attempt and slide into home for a 3-1 Cavs lead.

It was a tough break for

Goochland, but they recovered in the top of the fourth with their best offensive inning of the game. The Bulldogs had all three bases occupied by Graham-Michael Fletcher-Mintz, Chase Breedlove and Reese Vincent, and Fletcher-Mintz was the first to make it home after a RBI single from freshman Jack O’Malley.

Vincent, Breedlove and O’Malley all made it to home in one fell swoop when senior Mason Gregory smashed a three-run RBI triple down right field to push the Bull- dogs ahead 5-3. On the next at-bat, Gregory became the fifth Bulldog to cross home plate when Will Johns hit a grounder and reached on an error.

With the defense led by pitcher A.J. Condrey building off that momentum by holding the Cavs scoreless to end the fourth inning, the Bulldogs looked poised to open the lead up even further, but a Caroline pitching change proved a success and kept them scoreless for the rest of the game.

Goochland’s defense kept the lead intact after the bottom of the fifth saw ground outs to O’Malley and Riley Hite and a fly out to Gregory in center field. The Bulldogs went scoreless again in the top of the sixth though, and it was then that the Cavs mounted their comeback. A RBI double got the lead down to 6-4 and even with a pitching change to FletcherMintz, the Cavs continued to cut into the lead, scoring one more run on a ground out to enter the final inning down by a single run.

All three Bulldogs at the plate connected on the ball in the seventh, but none of them reached base, giving the Cavs hope entering the bottom of the inning. Consecutive singles got runners on first and third with no outs to start, with the tying run coming on a ground out from Christian Tingen.

With Jeron Morris waiting at third base and Myles Holmes at the plate, Holmes connected on a deep shot to center field that was caught by Gregory, but gave Morris ample time to tag up and make it to home, ending the game with the home fans in celebration and the Bulldogs stunned by a walk-off finish.

It was a tough pill to swallow for the season to come to an end in that fashion, but it was a season the Bulldogs could be proud of, closing out the regular season with momentum and giving themselves a fighting chance at a postseason victory. The game marks the final appearance of 11 Goochland seniors.

Robby Fletcher can be reached at rfletcher@powhatantoday.com.