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Stonewall takes out Liberty in baseball 3-1
The Liberty Eagles caught everything except a break Friday and lost 3-1 to Stonewall Jackson in Manassas.A starting pitcher for the first time, Liberty's Justin Reinaldo frustrated Stonewall batters with a repertoire of off-speed pitches and kept his defense busy by inducing 12 fly ball outs. Liberty's large collection of catches was upstaged, though, by one brilliant play by Raiders first baseman Jay Jay Zehring.
Trailing 3-1 after a two-run third inning for the Raiders, Liberty loaded the bases in the top of the fourth with walks by Russ Hill and Kurt Thiele and an infield single by Jacob Russ. The Eagles failed to score, though, when Ryan Walker struck out and Cody Williams bunted into a double play on a squeeze attempt called Liberty assistant Andrew Pittman, the third base coach.
"It’s a good call, the way we’ve been swinging the bats," LHS coach Mark Holmes said of the Eagles, who averaged 2.6 runs per game entering Friday. "He was just trying to make something happen. Unfortunately it didn’t work out."
The bunted ball, executed by Williams with a 1-0 count and one out, popped into the air on the first-base side of the mound. With the infielder playing in, Zehring was able to charge on contact and dive toward the mound to catch the ball inches above the ground.
By that time, Liberty's Hill was already nearing home plate and had no chance to retreat before Zehring threw to third base, capping the inning-ending double play.
"Bunting is something we’ve struggled with a bit all year," LHS junior Josh McDowell said. "We’ve just got to get that down...It kind of takes the win out of your sail.
Suffering a rare double play that required a diving catch by Stonewall (5-3 in the Cedar Run District) sums up Liberty's 2-10 season (0-7 district). It seems one play in many games, especially four losses by two runs or less, could have changed Liberty's fate.
“We’ve had some bad breaks," Holmes said, "but you make your breaks."
The Eagles failed reach base in two innings following that botched squeeze play, but finally put runners on first and third in the seventh inning. Stonewall recorded three consecutive outs, though, with Reinaldo striking out to end the game.
That's about the only instance in which Reinaldo didn't come through for the Eagles. As leadoff hitter, he drove in their only run with a double in the third inning and as pitcher he matched Stonewall's Fields, a senior who will pitch at Mount St. Mary's next season.
Fields had only thrown five innings prior to Friday's game but used a strong fastball to strike out seven LHS batters in a complete-game effort. He allowed just one run on four hits and three walks.
Meanwhile, in Reinaldo's first start of the season, the freshman allowed one earned run on five hits and two walks despite just two strikeouts over five innings.
“He’s a crafty lefty," Holmes said, also comparing Reinaldo's pitching style to major leaguer Jamie Moyer. "No two pitches he throws up there are the same speed so it’s tough as a hitter to get timing down.
"He’s going to be a good one. His future is bright in this game."
Reinaldo used an effective curveball and a mix of well-located changeups and fastballs to keep the Raiders off balance.
"His fastball, he puts it on the corners," said McDowell, Reinaldo's catcher. "He throws [the changeup] from the same arm slot and doesn’t slow his arm down. He drops probably eight mph off the pitch and they just see it as a fastball and swing through it."
Facing off-speed pitches is nothing new for the Raiders, according to catcher Tyler Jewett, but using Reinaldo was still a smart choice for Liberty.
“It was a good move because the past couple games we haven’t hit lefties that throw junk," he said. "We’re going up there frustrated, knowing we’re going to see a bunch of junk and have to fight to get on base."
Jewett, Matt Snyder and Josh Cesario managed to keep their hands back at the plate and wait on the ball enough to hit a double each, but John Miller was the only Raider with two hits.
"All the coaches I talked to said they were a dead-red, fastball hitting team. When you run against those teams, sometimes it’s good to go lefty and go soft," Holmes said. "That’s what we did. And it almost worked for us."
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