District-leading Lions blank Warriors

MINERAL — They made it look easy.
Louisa County, coming off a win over William Monroe on Thursday, rode the arm of Gunnar Carroll and timely hits from the middle of its order to cruise past Western Albemarle Friday night.
The Lions got a two-hit shutout from Carroll and preserved their perfect Jefferson District record with a 5-0 win over the Warriors.
“[The win] is huge. We did a good job of taking care of business in the first round [of district play],” said Louisa first-year coach Kevin Fisher. “We just came out ready to play and did what we’re supposed to do. We played the right way tonight against a good team.”
Louisa (12-3, 7-0 JD) broke to an early lead, as senior clean-up hitter Kenny Fleming belted a two-run double to left-center field, scoring Tyler Brookman and Dylan Szalankiewicz. Fleming had two doubles on the night.
The Lions added one run each in the second and third innings for insurance.
Carroll, a sophomore, recorded seven strikeouts and was efficient in getting batters to ground out all night.
Wade Hughes, who pitched the entire game for Western (6-6, 4-3) had one of his team’s two hits.
“They got off to a fast start. I thought in the first inning they hit the ball pretty hard. After that, I thought Wade settled in and pitched pretty well,” said Western Albemarle coach Skip Hudgins. “But we only got two hits and one of those was a ball that they misplayed. And you’re not going to win very often when you don’t hit the ball. That’s a good ballclub that we lost to, and I thought that’s the best pitched game we’ve had against us this year.”
You have to give them a lot of credit.”
Right now, Louisa is sitting right where it wants to be.
“We’ve just got to take advantage of the position we’re in right now,” Fisher said. “We don’t have that much pressure on us right now, we’ve just got to go out and play the way we’re capable of, and the rest will take care of itself.”