Madison County falls in Bull Run semifinals

MADISON — Madison County swept George Mason in two regular-season meetings on the diamond. The Mustangs got revenge Tuesday night. Mason combined 15 strikeouts from ace pitcher Mike Straub and timely hitting from the top half of the lineup to advance to the Bull Run District championship game with a 4-1 win over the Mountaineers.

Straub — a senior who was making only his fourth start of the year after battling back spasms for much of the season — was dominant on the mound, allowing only four hits in seven innings of work to send the Mustangs to the BRD title game.

“That’s what I expect a senior to do in his last game — which isn’t [his last game] anymore,” said George Mason coach Adam Amerine of his pitcher, who is headed to Lynchburg College in the fall. “Our feeling was we kind of had the ace in the hole. [Madison] didn’t see our number one at all this year and we were pretty confident in his abilities.”

That confidence in their senior pitcher carried over to the batter’s box for the Mustangs (10-11-1). Mason jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first on

back-to-back RBI singles from Alex Prewitt and Andrew Lieber. Madison then got out of a bases-loaded jam when pitcher Chris Deane induced a 4-6-3 double play to avoid further damage.

The Mountaineers cut the Mason lead to 2-1 in the third inning on a Matt Racer RBI single, one of only four MCHS hits in the game off the steady Straub.

“We knew he was tough even though we hadn’t seen him,” said Madison County coach Tom Butterworth. “We knew we weren’t going to score many and I thought we battled pretty hard at the plate. I thought we swung at good pitches, for the most part. He was just better than us tonight.”

The Mustangs put the game out of reach in the top of the seventh inning with a two-run single to center field by Mike Ward.

The loss in the district semifinals ended an otherwise successful campaign for the Mountaineers (12-9), who shared the Bull Run District regular-season crown with Strasburg. The title was Madison County baseball’s first since 1989.

“It’s hard to end it like this when everybody wants to go on and do big things,” Butterworth said. “For us to win a district championship or a share of a district championship — that’s good. It doesn’t make tonight feel any better but hopefully they will look back and be positive about that part of it.”

Racer, Bradley Gentry, Evan Tucker and Casey Campbell recorded the only hits for Madison. Deane took the loss on the hill, giving up eight hits and striking out nine in seven innings of work.

George Mason was led by Lonnie Millard and Straub, who both went 2 for 3 on the night.