Big MC leads evaporate for baseball team

By Ron Houser
Eagle Correspondent
Published: April 6, 2008

Although Madison County’s baseball team lost two of last week’s three games, it still showed a propensity to battle back in the face of adversity.
In March 23 action in Greene County, the Mountaineers built a 9-2 lead through four innings against William Monroe.  Starter Kyle Louk pitched four solid innings. However, three Madison relievers were unable to hold the lead, losing 10-9 in the bottom of the seventh.

Dylan Shifflette put the loss in perspective. “We will benefit from a game like this,” he said. “It will remind us that we have to play hard all seven innings.”
But on a positive note, Madison did bang out 11 hits against the Dragons.

The Luray Bulldogs came to town March 27 for a rematch of the season opener. Madison starter Chris Deane cruised through the first five innings, holding the undefeated Bulldogs to one run on seven scattered hits.

With Madison holding a 2-1 lead in the third inning, a Luray rally was snuffed out by solid Madison teamwork. Logan Dodson fielded a Bulldog base hit to right field, fired a perfect strike to cut off man Jacob Houser who made a nice relay throw to catcher Bradley Gentry to tag out the Luray base runner who was trying to score on the play.  Gentry did a great job of receiving the ball and making a quick tag.

MC was able to build its lead to 4-1 after five innings.

The Mountaineer defense, which had been solid for most of the season, uncharacteristically committed two errors in the sixth inning, leading to five Luray runs.  Trailing 6-4 going into the bottom of the seventh, Madison loaded the bases but was unable to grab the victory.

Despite losing two games after building sizeable leads, Madison All-District shortstop Evan Tucker remained upbeat. “We are a good team,” he said. “Nobody is hanging their head. We just need to keep swinging the bats and making the plays.”

Madison again reached double digits in hits, 10 for the game.

Coach Tom Butterworth remained optimistic about his team. “We will be all right,” he said. “These guys are aggressive at the plate. We will be better tomorrow.”

Butterworth’s words seemed prophetic when Madison jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first inning against the Page County Panthers Friday night. Madison took a 6-0 lead into the fifth inning. However, just as in the past two games, Madison allowed the opposing team to get back in the game. Page was able to cut the MC lead to 6-4 after scoring four times in the frame.

But Madison responded in a big way in the bottom of the fifth to ensure there would be no late inning collapse. Houser reached first base after being hit by the first pitch of the inning. Logan Dodson then doubled to deep center field.

Two outs later, with two runners still in scoring position, Matt Lambert came to the plate. “I hadn’t been doing much at the plate lately,” said Lambert. “I was just trying to put it in play.”

What he did was crush a “no doubt” homer over the left center field fence for three RBIs and an insurmountable Madison lead. Chris Harrison came on to record the final seven outs and preserve a 9-5 Madison victory.  Justin Dodson picked up the victory, allowing no runs on two hits in four innings of work.
Madison evened its record at 3-3 with the win.

Madison traveled to Fluvanna County Tuesday (results were unavailable at press time) and will visit Page County Friday.