Patriots prevail over Mustangs

Albemarle baseball coach Carroll Bickers has seen a lot of baseball, but a dozen runs in the first is new to him.
“In my career I don’t think I’ve seen 12 runs in the first,” Bickers said. “You’ll sometime’s see that late in games, not in the first. I thought, ‘Lord, we’re going to be here for a while.’”
After surrendering four runs on five walks and two hits with two outs in the top of first, the Patriots answered with an 8-run rally of their own in the bottom half of the inning, before going on to win 11-7.
“We both had pretty shaky first innings, but it all gets down to pitching,” said Monticello coach Dick Hartanft. “I think we were both pretty thin on pitching so I thought it would be a high-scoring game.”
After the furious first, things calmed down for teams offensively until Albemarle’s Tyler Molinaro sent a blast over the center field fence in the fourth to put his team up by five runs.
“I’ve been struggling lately,” Molinaro said. “He threw me a fastball low and in and I just jumped on and luckily it went out. Hopefully things will be good from there.”
Monticello got to within two runs in the fifth when the Patriots surrendered three unearned runs on a trio of throwing errors.
However, Albemarle added two insurance runs in the sixth and closed the game out in seventh.
The Patriots’ Dakota Rothgeb put in 6.2 innings worth of solid relief effort after coming in for starter Jake Hendrix.
Rothgeb did not surrender a single hit and finished the game with four strikeouts and two walks.
“I was feeling good until I starting wearing a little bit at the end,” Rothgeb said. “I was just hitting my spots, throwing strikes.”
The Patriots (3-1) also got a pair of solid defensive efforts from second baseman Blake Omohundro and right fielder Adam Utz.
Omohundro had a busy but error free day, piling up seven putouts including the game ending 4-6-3 double play.
Utz robbed Ryan Mullaney of a base hit in the first inning on a diving catch.
“We did a good job there,” Bickers said. “We are going to have to play real good defense. This is a different team from last year. We’re getting close to finding our identity. I don’t think we’re there yet, but of course, it’s early. We haven’t been outside but 25 percent of the time.”
Monticello’s Jacob Pelton matched Utz’s play with a diving catch of his own in the bottom of the first.
Molinaro finished the game 2 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI while teammate Vince Coles went 2 for 3 with a pair of stolen bases to go along with a pair of RBI.
While Monticello (0-4) is still looking for its first win, the Mustangs have played some of the top talent in the state, including Courtland, Colonial Forge and Albemarle, the latter two of which participated in the Group AAA tournament.
“We’re not feeling too bad by playing all these AAA teams,” Hartanft said. “We just need to get a little pitching. This is the first time for a lot of the guys who threw tonight, we’re just trying to see what we’ve got.”
Rich Harriot led the way offensively for the Mustangs. The Mustangs designated hitter was 1 for 3 with two RBI.
Monticello hosts Charlottesville on Thursday at 5 p.m.
Albemarle hosts Stafford in a Commonwealth District game today at 6 p.m.

This article was edited to correct a name.