Calm Fluvanna cruises past Monroe

PALMYRA — After falling behind in the first inning against William Monroe in the first round of the Jefferson District baseball tournament Friday night, Fluvanna County looked to be in danger of crashing out of the postseason. Instead, the Flying Flucos stayed calm and scored at least one run in each of the next five innings to advance to the semifinals with an 8-3 victory.
Fluvanna scored those eight runs not by hammering Greene Dragons pitching, but by playing small-ball, laying down timely bunts and advancing runners to manufacture runs.
“I don’t know how many times we tried to bunt, but every time we tried, we were successful. Whether it was a sacrifice or moving the runner to second, we got the job done,” said Fluvanna County coach Mike Sheridan, whose team recorded only one extra-base hit on the night.
After taking a 3-0 lead in the first inning — highlighted by Shannon Estes’ two-run double — William Monroe found further offense tough to come by once Flucos ace Kyle Via came on in relief of Matt Hamm to start the third inning. The Dragons managed only one more hit the rest of the way on an Eric Utz single up the middle in the seventh inning with the game out of reach.
“They brought in their stud and that’s the reason he’s a stud,” said William Monroe head coach Marc Arrington. “I don’t think it’s that we settled in. I think it’s that Via is that level of a pitcher. He just kept us off-balance all night.”
The decision to bring Via in from the bullpen was prompted by some arm trouble from starter Hamm.
“That’s a decision we sat down and debated. We wanted to get as many innings as possible out of Matt Hamm. He had a little bit of arm problems and it was a little tender on him so he was only able to give us two innings,” Sheridan said. “We knew that [Via] had the ability to shut the door and keep it at three.”
The lefty did just that, giving his teammates a chance to provide the run support. Fluvanna cut the lead to 3-2 after three innings before finally breaking through in the fourth for three runs. Josh Gooch and Robert Thompson both drove in runs in the inning to give the Flucos a 5-3 lead.
Utz, who fired a shutout against Fluvanna in the regular season, took the loss for the Dragons, giving up eight hits and four runs in 4.1 innings of work. Estes led William Monroe at the plate with two RBI.
Ryan Foster and Alex Farina each had two hits, an RBI and a run scored for Fluvanna.
The Flucos will face Western Albemarle on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Louisa County High School in the semifinals of the Jefferson District tournament.