Braves continue mastery of Generals, 7-5

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Staunton was 13-25 against the rest of the Valley League in 2010, but the Braves finished 5-1 against their cross-county rivals in Waynesboro with a 7-5 win over the Generals at Mathers Park Sunday night.

The game was knotted at 3-3 in the seventh when Waynesboro starter Greg Smith gave up a one-out double to Stephen Branca that drove Daniel Wright home. A two-out double by Patrick Braswell plated Branca and made it 5-3 Staunton.

The Braves added two in the eighth off reliever Justin Thompson, with Brian Collins scoring Justin Bagbey from second with a one-out single and Collins scoring on a two-out error by T.J. Kuban.

Waynesboro rallied for two in the ninth, with a Jon Clinard sacrifice-fly RBI scoring Kuban, and Devin Smith scoring on a wild pitch on strike three to shortstop Jared King on what would have been the game’s final out. King made it to first without a throw to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Drew Turocy, but Turocy grounded into a force play to end it.

Smith (1-1) took the loss for Waynesboro, going allowing five runs on 10 hits in six and two-thirds innings.

Joey cuda (4-5) picked up the win with four and a third innings of relief, allowing two runs, one earned, on four hits.

Five-run rally lifts Waynesboro to wild 15-14 win

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

A four-run top of the 12th seemed to give Woodstock one of the wildest games in the 87-year history of the Valley League. But we weren’t even close in terms of how wild things were going to get.

Five consecutive two-out walks, the last one drawn by nine-hole hitter Jon Clinard, gave Waynesboro an improbable 15-14 win at Mathers Park Friday night.

Clinard had led off the 12th with a walk off Zachary Tobolowski. Colin Harrington followed with a single, and Chase Worthington flew out to center for the first out of the inning. Drew Turocy picked up his fourth hit of the night with a flare to short left-center that loaded the bases. Grant Fillipitch followed with an RBI fielders choice that scored Clinard and made it 14-11, but left the Generals with two outs.

That’s when things got crazy.

Devin Smith walked to reload the bases, and Chase Cowell, a catcher, was summoned in with the River Bandits short on available pitchers to get the final out. Waynesboro reliever Andrew Blackwell, in his second plate appearance of the season, drew a walk to force in a run that made it 14-12. Jared King walked on a 3-2 pitch to draw the Generals to within 14-13. Catcher Alan Stoupa walked to tie the game at 14, leading to another pitching change, with second baseman Foster Dunigan brought in to face Clinard. Dunigan wasn’t close on any of his four offerings to Clinard on the walkoff.

The win improves Waynesboro to 18-17 on the season and gives the Generals a three-game playoff-berth cushion between where the Generals are in fifth place and Woodstock and Staunton, an 11-4 loser at Winchester on Friday, are at 15-20 and in a tie for ninth place, with nine games to go in the 2010 regular season.

Blackwell (2-1) picked up the win in relief.

7 E’s, but Sandefur, Generals, beat Luray

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Luray was in the midst of scoring four runs without the benefit of a hit in a wild first inning, and Waynesboro starter Taylor Sandefur needed something to go his way.

He got Ryan Lashley to ground to T.J. Kuban for out number three, then proceeded to mow down Wranglers for the next six innings, taking a no-hit bid into the seventh of an improbable 7-5 win Monday night at Mathers Park.

“Errors are part of the game. Those things are going to happen. You’ve just got to bear down and pound the zone and let your defense make plays behind you,” said Sandefur, who had among the more interesting stat lines that you’ll see to show for his efforts: seven innings pitched, five runs, one earned, two hits, eight strikeouts, three hit batters, W.

What the Waynesboro defense couldn’t do – committing a Valley League-high seven errors, six in the first three innings – the Waynesboro offense could. The Generals steadily chipped away at the first-inning fourspot off Luray starter Matt Laney, who had come into the game with a 2-0 record and 0.63 ERA, scoring a run in the first on a sacrifice fly-RBI by Chase Worthington, another in the third on another sac fly-RBI by Drew Turocy, two in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Jon Clinard and a run-scoring single by Cody Hudson, then three in the fifth on an error that allowed Worthington to score and a two-run single by Clinard that plated Alan Stoupa and Colin Harrington.

At this point, the attention shifted back to Sandefur, who still hadn’t given up a hit despite the four in the run column on the Luray part of the scoreboard.

“I had a good pace and good rhythm going,” said Sandefur, who improved to 6-0 with the win. “Alan (Stoupa, his catcher) called a good game. He called it, and I threw it. We were on the same wavelength, and we just kept it going.”

Luray catcher Nick Rickles broke up the no-hitter with a two-out flare to short left in the seventh that fell just outside the reach of Clinard. He came around to score on a single by Michael Broad before Sandefur rallied to get the last out of the inning on a strikeout of cleanup hitter Jeff Jefferson.

Despite the early trouble, Sandefur was prepared to go back out in the eighth and ninth to pursue the no-hitter.

“I want to be strong for the stretch drive, but I was ready to go back out until they got the hits in the seventh,” Sandefur said.

As for the win in a game with his D committing seven errors behind him: “Yeah, that’s a first for me,” Sandefur said, smiling. “It’s a credit to this team that we could pull together and get this one.”

Generals win at Front Royal

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Cody Hudson had three hits and two RBI, and Daniel Bradshaw pitched into the eighth inning as Waynesboro rolled past Front Royal 9-6 Thursday night.

Bradshaw (2-0) ended up being charged with six earned runs in seven and two-thirds innings of work after giving up a threespot in the eighth, but his outing was solid nonetheless.

The offense staked him to a 9-1 lead with a five-run fifth that was highlighted by a pair of two-run singles by Hudson and Jon Clinard.

Drew Turocy also had three hits and scored two runs for Waynesboro, which has now won eight out of its last 11.

Greg Smith picked up his first save of the season in relief of Bradshaw.

Generals win at Haymarket

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

A four-run fifth gave Waynesboro the lead, and a four-run ninth provided the final cushion in a 9-3 win at first-place Haymarket Saturday night.

The Senators had jumped out to a 3-0 lead with a three-run fourth off Generals starter Taylor Sandefur (5-0), but Waynesboro rallied in the fifth with an inning highlighted by a two-run triple by Cody Hudson, an RBI sac fly by Zephan Guyear and an RBI bases-loaded walk by Terrell Thompson.

A Guyear RBI single that plated Drew Turocy made it 5-3 in the sixth, which is where things stood until the ninth, when the Waynesboro offense erupted for four more runs with RBI singles by Thompson, Jon Clinard and Grant Fillipitch and an RBI sac fly by Hudson.

Sandefur went seven innings and gave up three runs on seven hits while striking out five.

Turocy had a 4-for-6 night at the plate, and catcher Alan Stoupa was 3-for-5 with a run scored.

Generals, Sandefur, coast in win at Harrisonburg

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

A bases-clearing double by Jon Clinard provided the early fireworks, and Taylor Sandefur made it stand up with a dominating performance on the mound, as Waynesboro coasted to a 9-3 victory at Harrisonburg Saturday night.

Sandefur (4-0) struck out nine Turks in seven innings while allowing three runs on seven hits. He was staked to an early 1-0 lead when Grant Fillipitch tripled with two outs in the first and came around to score on an RBI single by Drew Turocy.

Harrisonburg tied it at 1-1 in the third on a sacrifice fly by Bobby Brown that scored Emilio Pagan. Waynesboro answered with four in the fourth, all with two out. With two out and nobody on, T.J. Kuban worked a walk on a full-count pitch, then Alan Stoupa singled. The inning was extended when an apparent inning-ending ground ball off the bat of Colin Harrington was bobbled by Harrisonburg shortstop Joe Huber, loading the bases. Terrell Thompson was hit with the next pitch by Turks starter Aaron Luchterhand (3-2) to make it 2-1 Waynesboro. Clinard lined a 1-0 pitch down the leftfield line to clear the bases and make it 5-1.

Sandefur took control from there, allowing a twospot in the Turks fifth but putting up goose eggs in the sixth and seventh before handing the game over to the Generals bullpen. Justin Thompson and Andrew Blackwell put up scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth, respectively, to close the game out.

The win was the third in a row for the Generals, who have off-days on Sunday and Monday before returning to action at home on Tuesday against the Staunton Braves. We’ll bring you the action with a live webcast from Mathers Park beginning at 7 p.m.

Waynesboro rallies for 10-4 win at New Market

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

A Grant Fillipitch two-RBI single gave Waynesboro a seventh-inning lead, and a four-run ninth highlighted by an Alan Stoupa two-run single gave the Generals a 10-4 win at New Market Thursday night.

Starting pitcher Michael Reed put in a strong effort for Waynesboro, pitching into the sixth and giving up three runs on six hits, but he left with his team down 3-2 after the Rebels put up a twospot in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead.

The Generals rallied with four in the seventh, with Jon Clinard tying the game with an RBI single and Fillipitch following one batter later with his two-run hit.

It was 6-4 entering the ninth when Waynesboro put up another four on the scoreboard off Anthony Constanatos.

The comeback made a winner of Greg Smith (1-0), who pitched an inning and two-thirds of hitless, scoreless relief.

Stoupa had three hits and three RBI for Waynesboro.

Fillipitch powers Generals to 6-4 win over Haymarket

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

John Fillipitch may never get to leave.

“Some of the guys were talking about that in the dugout. He picked a good weekend to be here,” said his son, Grant, who hit two homers with dad in the stands at Mathers Park to lead the Waynesboro Generals to a 6-4 win over the visiting Haymarket Senators Saturday night. Read more

Braves take Generals, 10-2

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Staunton rode a strong pitching performance by Logan Dodd and a pair of big innings at the plate to a 10-2 win over Waynesboro Tuesday night at John Moxie Memorial Stadium.

Dodd (1-1) allowed two runs on nine hits while striking out eight in seven innings. The Braves took control with a four-run third that was highlighted by a two-run homer by Todd Brazeal off Generals starter Brian Atkins (1-1).

A fivespot in the eighth off reliever Justin Thompson, making his first appearance of the season for Waynesboro, broke the game open.

Waynesboro got two hits each from Jon Clinard, Zephan Guyear, Grant Fillipitch and Cody Hudson.

Generals knock off Braves, climb into tie for first

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Brian Adkins pitched six strong innings, and Waynesboro held off a late Staunton rally, en route to a 6-3 Generals win Wednesday night at Mathers Park.

Adkins, a Central Florida freshman, gave up two runs, one earned, on five hits and struck out seven Braves without walking a batter. Read more

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