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Battlefield out slugs Stonewall 13-3
While the Battle of Bull Run was, in fact, a closely-contested battle on the softball diamond, Battlefield used the slaughter rule to top Stonewall on the baseball field last Friday. The home-team Bobcats won 13-3 on senior night.
Senior left-hander Matt Crouse hurled five innings and struck out seven for Battlefield before the game was called in the bottom of the fifth inning. He allowed one earned run on eight hits.
The Battlefield offense,, meanwhile roughed up Stonewall starting pitcher Josh Cesario to the tune of 11 runs, though the senior struck out five batters.
Battlefield catcher Joey El-bisi (2 for 3) drove in the game-ending run with a single off Stonewall reliever Brian Lillis in the bottom of the fifth.
“We’re starting to hit the ball better,” said Battlefield coach Matt Caudle in a dramatic understatement. His boys put up a 30-spot against Liberty the prior week and responded against arch-rival Stonewall with another double-digit victory.
Things have changed in Haymarket since Battlefield “stunk it up” during a trip to Ft. Lauderdale at the beginning of the season, according to Caudle.
The coach changed four-fifths of his starting infield and his team started winning. In fact, Battlefield has dropped only two games since March and both of those were by only two runs.
“Well, we’re hitting over .300 as a team,” reported Caudle, whose team is known for its one-two combination of Evan Scott and Matt Crouse on the mound rather than for its batting averages. “After tonight, we’ve probably got over 70 extra-base hits.”
Stonewall kept it close at first.
Down 2-0 at the end of the second inning, shortstop Buddy Fields roped a double to centerfield that brought in left-fielder John Miller from second base. Fields advanced to third on a fielder’s choice and came home on a 1-1 single by catcher Tyler Jewlett that went through the third base-shortstop gap and into left field.
But Battlefield came back with three runs in the bottom half of the third inning as Bobby Seagears, Scott and Julian Joseph all crossed the plate from hits by Max Dove and Crouse.
Seagears, Scott and Joseph circled the bases again in the fifth, along with Crouse, Dove, El-bisi, Danny McDonald and Matt Robles, to end the game.
Caudle credited seniors McDonald (third base and pitcher) and Robles (shortstop) for enhancing their games since the start of the season.
“Danny McDonald’s hitting has made phenomenal improvements because he was not a good hitter,” the coach said. “He’s come a long way.”
After Robles started the 2008 campaign a bit rusty, he opened his batting stance and became an offensive factor, noted Caudle, adding that in the last couple of games, senior left-fielder Eddie Wendle has done the same at the plate.
As for Scott and Crouse, who have both been checked out by Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, they’re among the best Caudle’s ever coached in his three decades at the helm of high school teams.
“They’re in the top four,” he said, placing them in company with Scott Morgenthaler, who set four pitching records at Annandale High School before pitching for the University of Virginia, and Travis Johnson, a senior at the University of South Alabama who holds Annandale’s strikeout, innings pitch and ERA records.
“When you’re in your senior year, something clicks,” said Caudle. “They’re competitors, and they’ve got big futures.”
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