Sports

04 07

2022 Prep baseball: Glen Allen vs. Atlee at Randolph-Macon noon

04 10

2022 College softball: Guilford at Randolph-Macon 1:00 p.m./3:00 p.m.

| Youth, High School, College, Recreational & Professional

Hamlin claws way to front for Cup win

By Robby Fletcher Richmond Suburban News

RICHMOND — Chesterfield native Denny Hamlin has had a rough start to 2022. Normally, by this time in the season he is near the top in points standings. Often, he has had a victory or two by April, or at least several top-10 finishes. But not so this year.

Until Sunday at Richmond Raceway.

Hamlin, who spent most of the Toyota Owners 400 out of the top 10, pulled in front with five laps to go to steal a crucial first-place finish for his first victory of the season.

“Just drove as hard as I could,” Hamlin said after his late push toward the finish line. “Just so proud of this whole FedEx Camry team, man, just never giving up. There was no doubt in my mind, maybe just a little, but they got this car right there towards the end. Wow, unbelievable.”

The victory is Hamlin’s fourth win and 20th top-10 finish in 31 races at Richmond Raceway, and much of the credit for his finish goes to excellent pit stop strategy that gave him fresh tires to close out the shorttrack race. The win, Hamlin says, is one he hopes gives the team momentum after its tough season start.

“I don’t want to look too far ahead because I certainly want to celebrate this one,” Hamlin said. “It sure is a positive sign considering how we ran as an organization at Phoenix.”

In the Ruoff Mortgage 500 in Phoenix on March 13, Hamlin started second but finished 13th.

Pulling in second behind Hamlin Sunday was Kevin Harvick, who posted his 28th top-10 finish in 42 races at Richmond and his third top10 finish in 2022. In the final lap, Hamlin had to hold off a furious sprint for first from Harvick, who fell just behind in the final stretch.

“The lapped cars there kind of got in the way, and I lost a little bit of ground,” Harvick said. “Still a great day for us, just hopefully a little momentum in a positive direction.”

Rounding out the top-5 were drivers William Byron, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson. Truex led on four separate occasions for 80 laps and was also in contention to win the race at the end, but he ultimately had to settle for fourth.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “But that’s part of it here. It’s part of the whole day. Obviously we did good there for a while.”

Ryan Blaney started the race off in pole position after a strong performance in his Team Penske Ford Mustang in practice and in qualifying. Blaney won Stage 1 and led through Lap 129 for the longest leading run of the day; the stage victory was his third of the season. Blaney, with 241 points, is now tied at the top of the points standings with Chase Elliott.

There were three cautions during the course of the 400-lap race, with one coming in Stage 1

see HAMLIN, pg. 25

Dave Lawrence/The Local

Denny Hamlin (11) takes the checkered fl ag in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway Sunday. He took the lead for the fi rst time in the race with fi ve laps to go for the victory, his fi rst win — fi rst top-10 fi nish — this season.

Huesman throws no-hitter against Raiders

Mustang baseball beats Cavaliers

By Dave Lawrence Sports Editor

RICHMOND — Hanover pitcher Levi Huesman was determined that he, not Atlee’s hitters, was going to own the plate when the two teams met at Hanover Wednesday.

He did. Huesman allowed just two baserunners while throwing a no-hitter in an 11-0, five-inning win over the Raiders.

Huesman struck out 13 of the 17 batters he faced. He threw 51 strikes out of 67 pitches. He and Hawk catcher mixed up the pitch selection and placement to keep the Raiders off balance.

By the time it was over, only two Atlee batters reached base, one hit by pitch, the other on a throwing error.

“Levi’s worked really hard this offseason along with the rest of our guys,” said Hanover head baseball coach Tyler Kane. “Going out against Atlee, he had command of all three of his pitches. He primarily threw his fastball, slider. I think his velocity was 92 to 95 with command, so it made it difficult for Atlee.

“Any time you can command a fastball in the low-tomid 90s, it’s not an easy thing to hit. We were fortunate that Levi had his “A” stuff and we provided him with some runs early on as well.”

The Raiders do bring plenty of offense.

“Atlee always has great players. This year’s no different,” Kane said. “They’ve got a really strong lineup with (Turner) Fitzpatrick and (Landon) Scott

Dave Lawrence/fi le photo

Hanover pitcher Levi Huesman, shown here against Mechanicsville last year, no-hit Atlee in an 11-0 victory in fi ve winnings Wednesday. Huesman’s bid for a perfect game was spoiled by an error on a bunt by Atlee’s Chay Balderson that allowed Balderson to reach third.

and (Chase) Sanford, and there’s several other seniors in that lineup. So they’re senior heavy and they’re really good players.

“But like I said, when Levi’s got his ‘A’ stuff, he’s really tough to hit. They battle in the box.”

Huesman got a lot of help from his battery mate, Hanover catcher Cannon Peebles. In a rarity for high school, even college, players, Peebles calls the pitches.

“This year, so far, Cannon Peebles has called the games for Levi,” Kane said. “Hunter Hoy and Yuri Namkoong, two of our assistants, have done it in the past. This year we’ve given Cannon and Levi autonomy to call their own games. Cannon’s a senior, and he’s learned from Coach Hoy and Coach Namkoong the last couple of years. We have all the confidence in the world in him calling the games for ur pitchers.”

Offensively, the Hawks were led by Seth Keller, who hit a home run in two atbats, scored two runs with three RBIs. Peebles, Nolan Williamson, Charlie Rohr and Chase Hustead went 2-for3. Williamson had two RBIs; Peebles and Rohr had one. Peebles, Rohr and Cole Elrod each hit a double, with Elrod knocking in three runs.

Elsewhere, on March 29 Mechanicsville’s baseball team visited King William, which in the past has given the Mustangs their share of trouble. But the Cavaliers were no trouble. Mustang pitchers Cole Nicely and Matthew Duke combined for a 16-0 shutout.

“Our guys are doing what they need to do,” said Mechanicsville head baseball coach Tyler Johnson. “They’re hitting and they’re throwing strikes. So we’re off to a good start.”

Mechanicsville lost a number of seniors to graduation last year, and Johnson has a stable of young arms that have yet to be tested. So far, however, with a 8-2 win over Caroline Saturday, they’re passing their quizzes — if not outright tests.

“We’re trying to do our best with getting them good reps early,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to get them into some serious reps . . . so they’ll be ready

Courtesy of Alysia Maxier

Mechanicsville pitcher Matthew Duke (above) throws a strike in the Mustangs’ 16-0 baseball win over host King William on March 29. Left, Kaitlyn Amos gets a hit for Mechanicsville in an 8-0 loss to King William on March 29.

later in the season. But they’re going to be okay.”

Dave Lawrence can be reached at dlawrence@mechlocal.com.

Gibbs muscles way to win in Xfi nity race

By Dave Lawrence Sports Editor

RICHMOND — Ty Gibbs and John Hunter Nemechek started the ToyotaCare 250 at the front of the pack Saturday at Richmond Raceway, with Gibbs at the pole position and Nemechek in the No. 2 spot.

By the time the 250-lap duel between the two was over, they finished as they started. Despite being overtaken by Nemechek on lap 247, Gibbs cut underneath Nemechek between Turns 3 and 4, bumping him in the process, and claimed the checkered flag with inches separating the two Toyota drivers.

The victory was the 19-yearold’s seventh in 25 Xfinity Series races, and his third win this year.

He was somewhat contrite after the late contact with Nemechek, his teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing.

“I probably deserve to get bumped back for a win,” Gibbs said. “But we’re racing hard. These wins are hard to come by. You’ve just got to take every advantage. I didn’t let him by and clean him out for the win. I doored him. I got in there hard. That was the point. I was tight, but there’s no excuse for me hitting him. I hit him and knocked him up the track — but, like I said, we’re fighting for wins.”

Nemechek was less than thrilled with the contact.

“He was able to get a run beating my back bumper off, got inside of me,” Nemechek said. “Thought we would be able to run side-by-side there, him running low and me running high in (Turns) 3 and 4. It didn’t play out that way. He just didn’t even try to make the corner. It is what it is.”

The pair dominated the field. Nemechek led four times for a total of 135 laps. Gibbs led

Dave Lawrence/ The Local

Left, Ty Gibbs (foreground) celebrates his win in Victory Lane after passing John Hunter Nemecheck on the fi nal lap of the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway Saturday. Below left, Gibbs, in the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota, overtakes John Hunter Nemechek (18) on the last lap to take the checkered fl ag.

four times for a total of 114 laps. Josh Berry was the only other race leader and his time in front of the pack was essentially a blink: one lap.

Gibbs’ late lead looked insurmountable until lapped traffic got in his way, allowing Nemechek to catch up.

“It affected, I feel like, me a lot. That’s just part of racing,” Gibbs said. “I didn’t get through there as good as John Hunter did — that’s why he got back to me. I just lost a lot on turns being underneath these guys. It’s just hard with them being on the outside of you really closely up off the corner. You lose a lot of right-side grip. That’s where you’ve got to fight and get through there as fast as you can.” Sam Mayer finished third and won the $100,000 Dash

see GIBBS, pg. 26

Joel Klein for The Local

Denny Hamlin gives the fans a burnout after getting his fi rst win of the season in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway Sunday.

HAMLIN

Continued from pg. 23

after Kurt Busch had to stop due to low fuel pressure, ending his chances of contention early. He ended the race with a DNF.

There were two contact cautions later in the race, with one at Lap 247 after Cody Ware hit the wall on the backstretch after contact with Erik Jones and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The next caution came on Lap 258 when Ty Dillon and Cole Custer sideswiped each other low, with Custer ricocheting into and

spinning Austin Cindric. The NASCAR Cup Series remains in Virginia this week with the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at Martinsville Speedway Saturday. Robby Fletcher can be reached at rfletcher@powhatantoday.com. The Mechanicsville Local April 6, 2022 25

Bonsignore wins Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 150

By Dave Lawrence Sports Editor

RICHMOND — The start to the spring 2022 race weekend at Richmond Raceway started off with a bang, or at least a worst-to-first story, in the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 150 Friday night.

It was a good start for a race weekend hoping to return to something approaching normal since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Justin Bonsignore, a threetime and defending Whelen Modified Tour champion, began the 2022 tour disastrously when a mechanical failure knocked him out of the New Smyrna Visitors Bureau 200 in New Smyrna, Florida, back in February. He had weeks before the Virginia Is for Racing Lovers 150 — the second race of the Whelen Modified season — to stew over the result.

Bonsignore began the race in the pole position, faded a bit in the middle of the race, then overtook and fought off Tommy Catalano in a late-lap duel to win.

“It’s been a long seven weeks,” Bonsignore said. “Driving home from work every day, we’re dead last in points. It was a long time until we raced again.

“Deep down, we knew that Smyrna was out of our control. You’re going to have parts failures in this series. It was just important to come back and try to have a good day.”

Bonsignore said he had to be disciplined in how he ran the race.

“We set the pole by over two-tenths [of a second] and you’re like, you’re hoping that you can just drive away from everybody. But this place is so much about discipline, especially in our series. We run such a soft Hoosier tire that it’s going to go away pretty quick. We did the tire test last spring — after 40 laps or so you’re begging for new tires.

“You’re just trying to set your pace and there’s six, seven guys behind you that want to do nothing but lead the race as well, and I’m trying to not burn my tires up and you just can’t get away.”

Bonsignore fell out of his early lead while pitting during an early caution about 50 laps in. He was in seventh on a restart after the final caution with 49 laps to go. Bonsignore worked back into second place, then chased down Catalano, who was looking for his first series win. He took advantage of lapped traffic and Catalano’s worn tires to move inside and pull even with Catalano on Lap 11, then took the lead on Lap 10 and held it the rest of the way.

“The tires just wear so quick. You’re trying to go as hard as you can but you’re babying the car as much as you can as well,” Bonsignore said. “It’s a fine line of getting the right pace you need to run. …

“Once you see his car to fault a little bit and start to get loose off of 2, and you can see him off of 4, too, which is worse because you’ve got so much wheel on the car it’s just killing the right rear tire even more — once I saw that, you kind of pull yourself back up in your seat, get out a little bit of the funk you’re in and you’re, like, ‘All right, I can go do this.’ ”

Dave Lawrence can be reached at dlawrence@mechlocal.com.

Dave Lawrence/ The Local

Above, Debris fl ies off of Patrick Emerling’s 07 car after he hit the wall coming out of Turn 1 on Lap 62 in the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond Raceway Friday. Left, Patrick Emerling (without helmet) walks away from his wreck. Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 150

1. Justin Bonsignore, 2. Tommy Catalano, 3. Chuck Hossfeld, 4. Kyle Ebersole, 5. Tyler Rypkema, 6. Eric Goodale, 7. Jimmy Blewett, 8. Jon McKennedy, 9. Donny Lia, 10. Ron Silk, 11. Austin Beers*, 12. Max McLaughlin, 13. Ryan Newman, 14. J.B. Fortin, 15. Craig Lutz, 16. Dave Sapienza, 17. Bobby Santos, Jr., 18. Andrew Krause, 19. Jeremy Gerstner, 20. Kyle Bonsignore, 21. James Pritchard, Jr., 22. Gary McDonald, 23. Ed McCarthy*, 24. Bryan Dauzat, 25. Patrick Emerling, 26. Spencer Davis, 27. Melissa Fifield.

GIBBS

Continued from pg. 25

4 Cash prize. What does the 18-year-old plan to do with that money?

“Honestly, I’m just gonna put it in my bank account because my dumb *** can’t touch that or bad stuff will happen,” he said according to Frontstretch.com reporter Trey Lyle.

A.J. Allmendinger finished fourth. He leads Gibbs and Noah Gragson in Xfinity points standings by 20 points, 303 to 283 for both Gibbs and Gragson. Gragson finished 21st in the ToyotaCare 250.

Dave Lawrence can be reached at dlawrence@mechlocal.com.

ToyotaCare 250

1. Ty Gibbs, 2. John Hunter Nemechek, 3. Sam Mayer, 4. A.J. Allmendinger, 5. Riley Herbst, 6. Daniel Hemric, 7. Josh Berry, 8. Brandon Brown, 9. Ryan Sieg, 10. Parker Retzlaff, 11. Jeb Burton, 12. Anthony Alfredo, 13. Brandon Jones, 14. Justin Allgaier, 15. Landon Cassill, 16. Ryan Preece, 17. Mason Massey, 18. Austin Hill, 19. Alex Labbe, 20. Jeremy Clements, 21. Noah Gragson, 22. Sheldon Creed, 23. David Starr, 24. Rajah Caruth, 25. Brett Moffitt, 26. Derek Griffith, 27. Josh Williams, 28. Kyle Weatherman, 29. Joe Graf Jr., 30. Myatt Snider, 31. Bayley Currey, 32. J.J. Yeley, 33. Jade Buford, 34. Joey Gase, 35. Stefan Parsons, 36. Ryan Vargas, 37. Kyle Sieg, 38. Brennan Poole.