Patriots beat Eagles in thriller

There were no signs of panic on the Albemarle bench.
With their season on the line, and archrival Colonial Forge up by two runs in the bottom of the sixth, it was as if the Patriots knew they were due.
And just like that, Josh Sites drove in Blake Omohundro on a double, and with two down facing an 0-2 count, Tyler Molinaro crushed a Matt Edwards curveball over the right field fence for a three-run homer to lead Albemarle past the Eagles, 5-3.
“He made me look foolish on the first two pitches,” Molinaro said. “I was just hoping he’d leave something up in the zone. I knew he’d come back with the curveball because he’d been throwing it all day. He just left it up and I just got all of it I guess. It worked out.”
It was Molinaro’s eighth homer of the year, edging Mickey White’s previous Patriots’ record for homeruns in a season.
The Patriots struggled mightily with Forge, the Group AAA runner-up, last year, but the Commonwealth District quarterfinal victory gave Albemarle the season sweep this year.
“They beat us three times last year,” said Albemarle coach Carroll Bickers. “So in a nice way we wanted to pay them back.”
Jason White was solid on the mound for the Patriots, going the distance on just 75 pitches in a game that lasted just 80 minutes.
“It was an adrenaline rush that you can’t really explain,” White said of his day on the hill. “I just kept throwing two-seam fastballs. That was all I could throw.”
White gave up just six hits and issued no walks, forcing the Eagles’ offense to put the ball in play.
“We were just as pleased as punch with Jason,” Bickers said. “And he was his own best friend on defense there.”
Forge had no trouble
putting the ball in play, but save a throwing error in the bottom of the seventh, the Albemarle defense was on top of its game.
After the error in the seventh, which gave the Eagles a runner on first with no outs, White made the defensive play of the game by snagging a lined shot hit straight to him, and sending the ball over to Molinaro at first for the double play, his second of the game.
“I almost got killed,” White said.
“I told him too,” Molinaro added. “I said ‘You’re about to get another double play.’ I just didn’t know it was going to be a line drive at his face.”
It was the third double play of the game for the Patriots (13-7) as the defense came up with a 1-6-3 and 6-3 double play in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings, respectively.
“When Josh Sites made the little boo-boo there in the seventh I thought ‘Oh, lord here we go’ because our nemesis has been at the bottom of the order,” Bickers said. “But what can you say, timely hitting, timely defense.”
While neither team reached double-digit hits, there was no shortage of contact. Between the third and fifth innings, the two teams combined for 11 consecutive pop-fly outs.
Taylor Guinn and Edwards provided the offense for Forge (9-12), each going 2 for 3 and driving all three Eagle runs with two outs in the top of the third.
“We showed some
resiliency there in the third with two outs,” said Colonial Forge coach Shawn Szakelyhidi. “We were able to push three runs across, but unfortunately didn’t make two plays when we needed to make plays.”
Omohundro and Adam Utz each went 2 for 3 with a run scored. Omuhundro also drove in the Patriots’ first run in the bottom of the second.
Albemarle plays either Massaponax or Mountain View on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the district semifinals.