Albemarle drops Orange for title

PALMYRA — Playing in its third contest in two days — and fifth in three days — Albemarle Post 74 was on a mission in Sunday afternoon’s junior American Legion District 12 tournament championship game at Fluvanna County High School. Albemarle had to face No. 1 seed and defending district champ Orange Post 156 for the second time in less than 24 hours.

After defeating Orange on Saturday to force a do-or-die matchup Sunday, it only took one productive inning to give Albemarle a secure lead that it ultimately would not relinquish, and Post 74 hoisted the trophy after a 5-2 win.

“We lost the first game in this tournament, which put us behind the 8 ball, and we had to come back and win five straight,” said Albemarle coach Greg Wells. “So this was the most gratifying of all of them.”

Wells told his troops over the past few days to be focused and to take it one game at a time, and not to focus on Orange, who he had a feeling would be waiting for Albemarle in the title.

The two teams were in a scoreless tie going into the bottom of the third inning, and that’s when Albemarle started to turn it on offensively. First baseman R.J. Davis led off the inning with a gritty nine-pitch at-bat and reached on an error. Davis advanced to second after Orange pitcher Zack Reininger was charged with a balk, and Eli Haden followed with a single and stolen base.

With no one out and runners at second and third, Albemarle’s Jay Schwab smoked a grounder up the middle to give his team an early 2-0 lead. Andrew Kalis drove Schwab in, and Lee Carneal singled to score Joey Varaksa to double the Albemarle lead.

Varaksa also threw six effective innings, giving him 10 frames on the mound in three days, while giving up just five hits and one earned run.

Orange’s Rahiem Cooper scored in the top of the fourth when Davis couldn’t maintain control of a ball thrown his way.

Cooper reached on a walk to lead off the sixth inning, and made his way around the bases again, and Orange cut the lead to 4-2.

In the second half of the same inning, Haden reached on a two-out error, and with Schwab at the plate, stole second base. Orange catcher Austin Roberts’ throw on another Haden steal attempt missed its target, and Albemarle got an insurance run.

In the seventh, Wells turned to Ryan Morris in relief, and the pitcher struck out two of the four batters he faced to seal the win.

“It was a great year,” Orange coach Brian Rasnick said. “It’s tough to end on two losses, but before those we broke off ten in a row playing great baseball. The kids really improved from the first week to this week, not only in terms of emotion, but how they played the game.”

Albemarle (23-4) will attempt to claim its fifth straight state championship when the team begins play in this year’s event on Wednesday at RF&B Park in Glen Allen.