Dragons stop Lions

STANARDSVILLE — Up by nine with a runner on third base in the bottom of the fifth inning, William Monroe was just one hit away from ending the game via slaughter rule.

Instead, Louisa County got out of the inning and made things interesting by cutting the Greene Dragons lead to just one run on an 8-run rally in the top of the sixth.

“Yea, we only play exciting games out here,” joked Monroe coach Mark Arrington.

Monroe recovered by responding with two runs of insurance before Bruce Shifflett took the mound in the seventh to wrap up the 13-10 victory.

“It was a good win. I don’t know of the last time we beat Louisa, so that was humongous for us.”

The Dragons (7-6, 3-3 Jefferson District) got out to a strong start. After surrendering a pair of runs to the Lions (4-5, 2-3) in the top of the first, Monroe put up nine runs on the board in the bottom half of the inning and tacked on two more in the next inning to go up by nine.

“I told the kids we did a good job of fighting back,” said Lions coach Kevin Fisher. “But it’s just disappointing to start the game out the way we did. You put yourself down by nine after the first two innings, you give up that much it’s pretty tough to beat anybody.”

Both pitching staffs took over in the middle of the game with no runs being score for either side in the third, fourth and fifth innings.

Shifflett was an instrumental part of the Dragons’ big first inning, coming up with an RBI double in his first plate appearance and then following that up with a 3-run homer.

“They threw me two inside fastballs,” Shifflett said. “Luckily, I had a little bit of wind out there to help on the second hit.”

With a batter’s wind, there was no shortage of fence-clearing hits. Freshman catcher Logan Forloines also had a two-run homer for Monroe, and Louisa’s sixth-inning rally was all about the long ball.

Of the eight Louisa runs in that inning, five came on home runs, starting with Ryan Hollins’ 3-run shot with one out, and then two more coming on Christian Oliver’s four-bagger just three batters later.

“When they scored a couple of the runs, I didn’t think anything of it,” Shifflett said of the late rally. “But then they kept scoring and you’re heart just sinks. You just hate to let a game that you’ve played so well get away from you.”

Much was at stake for both squads. While Orange County looks to have all but wrapped up a first-round bye — and, more than likely, the regular-season title, just about everyone else is in the running for second place with Western Albemarle now just a game ahead of Monroe. Louisa, Fluvanna and Monticello are just two games back from the No. 2 spot.

The Dragons’ poise has Arrington feeling good about his squad’s mental toughness.

“This is a game that maybe two weeks ago, after a big inning like [Louisa] had in the sixth, it might have been all downhill,” Arrington said. “I think our kids showed a lot of maturity today and came together as a team.”

Shifflett finished the game 2 for 4 with four RBI. Forloines and Danny Morris also went 2 for 4 for the Dragons.

For Louisa, Oliver was 3 for 4, finishing a triple shy of the cycle. Hollins and teammate Jeff Butler each went 2 for 4.

Louisa travels to Western today at 5 p.m.

Monroe hosts Charlottesville today at 5 p.m.