Madison baseball team’s hitting, pitching, defense all sharp

By Ron Houser
Eagle Correspondent
Published: March 27, 2008

Common traits of a good baseball team include timely hitting, solid defense and quality pitching. In a March 18 match-up with Fluvanna County, Madison County demonstrated those traits in its 10-3 victory.

Offensively, Madison banged out 10 hits against Fluvanna. Kyle Louk, Matt Racer and Dylan Shifflette had two hits each. Bradley Gentry, Evan Tucker, Jacob Houser and Matt Lambert also had base knocks for the Mountaineers. Gentry and Shifflette had two RBIs apiece. Pinch runners Nick Aylor and JJ Adams added to the offensive output by scoring insurance runs in the fifth inning, increasing a three-run lead to five.

“Coach [Tom] Butterworth told me I would be pinch running tonight,” said Adams. “I had to be ready to go in the game and try to help the team. Luckily we were able to score a lot tonight.”

Defensively, Madison was errorless in the field for the second game in a row. Right fielder Logan Dodson made three “hit-robbing catches” in the game. The Mountaineer infield did its job, turning its fourth double play of the season and accounting for 13 of the 21 Fluvanna outs.

Pitching for Madison was Justin Dodson. The junior pitcher threw a complete game, allowing only two hits and two walks. He struck out four Flucos on 84 total pitches. This was Dodson’s first varsity win as a pitcher.

“I was just trying to get ahead of the batters,” said Dodson. “Coach [Billy] Mitchell told me in practice and before the game to just do what was natural. It worked for me tonight.”

The win improved Madison’s record to 2-1 on the young season. Madison’s game with Orange County, scheduled for last Thursday, was rained out. It will be made up on April 12. The Mountaineers had three games this week, at Greene County’s William Monroe Tuesday, Luray at home Thursday, March 27, and Page County at home Friday, March 28.