Wildcats & Blues Fight For Tie
Wildcat fans can still say that Parry McCluer has never beaten their varsity but they can't say they've won all of the games.  A very much improved and hard playing team from Buena Vista kept coming back and should do very well this year in the Pioneer District.
You couldn't ask for a more exciting game than the one played at Parry McCluer H.S. between these two teams last night.  It was a tug of war right from the start with Nick Ramsey leading off the game with a long double to left center field which would have been a home run had there been a fence.  Nick scored on a single to right delivered by a hot hitting Adrian Watts.   
The pivotal point in the game came in the second inning when the Wildcats scored 3 runs. Finley Waddell led off by walking and then stealing 2B.  Joe Vita followed by beating out a ground ball for a hit.  After both Waddell and Vita advanced to 2B & 3B on a wild pitch, Nick Ramsey, with 1 out, drove Waddell home on a sacrifice fly to right.  Brandon Zollman then drove a homerun over the right center field wall to score Vita and himself.  Credit Finley for making it all possible because when Joe grounded to short, Waddell (on 2B) tempted the shortstop by jumping off the bag & causing him to delay his throw to 1B.  That subtle move on his part proved to be a very important play.  Had Vita been out, Ramsey would have gotten up to bat with  two outs.  His fly ball would have ended the inning and three runs would not have scored.
The Cats scored the rest of their 7 runs on a double by Scott Branch in the 3rd, a single by Jonathan Wilson in the 4th, and a long single by Adam Sandridge off the right field wall which managed to bounce back conveniently to the PM centerfielder. 
The Rockbridge team scored in every inning except the 5th.  Pinch runner, Ren Scott, was thrown out at home attempting to score all the way from 1B on a double hit by Jonathan Wilson in the 6th. 
The Wildcat defense was good with only three errors made.  Two were throwing errors and one, by Joe Vita, allowed 2 runs to score.  With 2 out & runners on 2B and 3B in the bottom of the 2nd inning, Vita managed to back hand a ground ball hit up the middle but his off balance throw was short to 1B.
The Cats' pitching was pretty good as Scott Branch, in his first Varsity start, faced 33 batters, allowed 4 earned runs, 2 strikeouts and 4 walks in four innings.  Josh Kibler pitched two innings in relief without giving up a run. Jonathan Wilson, this year's closer, threw hard in contrast to the two previous Wildcat pitchers. PM scored the tying run, however,  in the bottom of the 6th in a strategic gamble by the Blues that paid off.  With  runners on 1B & 3B and one out, the first base runner ran halfway down to second in an attempt to attract some attention and allow the runner on third to score.  The ploy worked for them as second baseman, Nick Ramsey, went after the 1B runner and got him out while the runner on 3B broke for home.  Batter Eric Dudley grounded out and the game was called due to darkness.