Royals win in bottom of the ninth
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
A two-out, ninth-inning RBI single by Cody Gaskill capped a late Winchester rally and propelled the Royals to a 9-8 win over Waynesboro Friday night.
The Generals (3-3) led 8-3 after a three-run rally in the fourth highlighted by a two-run double off the bat of Grant Fillipitch. Winchester (4-3) answered with four in the bottom of the fourth, the big blow being a three-run triple by Steve Sabins off Waynesboro starting pitcher Jeremy Fitzgerald.
A Sabins sacrifice-fly RBI tied the game at 8 in the fifth and set up Gaskill’s ninth-inning heroics.
Fitzgerald gave up 10 hits and eight runs – four earned – in five innings of work. Drew Turocy (0-1) took the loss, giving up the run in the ninth at the end of an otherwise solid two and two-thirds innings of work out of the pen.
The Winchester bullpen put out the fire after a rocky start by Chris Nunn, who gave up eight runs, all earned, in three and a third innings. Relievers Stephen Cooke and Matt Zahel pitched five and two-thirds innings of scoreless baseball out of the Royals’ pen.
