| When the Wildcats
visited Christiansburg yesterday they were thrown a curve ball. Actually they saw a lot of
them. About 90% of the pitches delivered by the Demon's righty, Steve Nagy, were
curveballs thrown with different arm motions and to different locations of the plate. The
Rockbridge batters were kept off balance & went reaching for pitches out of the zone
preventing them from connecting solidly for the second straight game. They spread out
their 4 hits of the afternoon over all 7 innings at bat and managed to walk only
once. The Cats got another good pitching performance from Josh Kibler who struck out 3, walked only 2 & allowed the Demons to collect 4 hits. He was relieved in the bottom of the 6th by Scott Branch who also pitched well to the 4 batters he faced and gave up one hit. Once again the defense for Rockbridge was solid with Wilson, Kibler, Saunders & Waddell all contributing. Kevin Burant, brought in for Watts in the 4th, made two good catches in right field, and Joe Vita, brought in to play 2B when Branch came in to pitch, backhanded a chopper hit near 2B to record an out in the bottom of the 6th and kept a run from possibly scoring. While pitching and defense were good for both teams, small miscues from the mound made the difference. All three runs scored in the game came on either a passed ball or wild pitch* from each of the three pitchers. The two pitches delivered by Wildcat pitchers were hard to call*. A throw from Kibler in the bottom of the 3rd caused a runner to score from 3B just as a wild pitch from Nagy in the top of the 5th brought in Finley Waddell in a close play at home plate. The bottom of the 6th saw Kibler removed after about 72 pitches and a leadoff single. Scott Branch was brought in to pitch. After stealing 2B, the runner advanced to 3B on the grounder to Vita and scored on a pitch to the next batter. Ren Scott was thrown out trying to go from 1B to 3B on the play. Wilson got caught in a run down off 2B earlier in the game. Wildcat hits were supplied by Watts, Wilson, Ramsey and Kevin Burant who got the most convincing hit of the day with a long double into the gap in left center field. Casey Saunders got credit for the rbi as he was at bat when Waddell scored. |
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