Charles City scores early, tops Amelia 9-5
Charles City’s Panthers pushed across four first inning runs and eventually built a 6-0 lead at the expense of Amelia’s visiting Raiders. The hosts then turned back late Raider rally attempts on the way to a 9-5 non-district baseball win.
The April 14 triumph evened Charles City’s record at 2-2 and avenged an earlier 8-1 setback on the Raiders’ home field.
“We hit the ball a little bit better than we did the last time,” Panther coach Irving Bradby said, pointing to his team’s eight hits.
“This helps us build a little confidence,” he said. “We’ve cut back on errors a whole lot. Now all we have to do is play a little more relaxed and we’ll be fine.”
Roger Williams, who started on the mound for the hosts, tossed a four-hitter through six innings. He ran into trouble in the seventh and final frame after walking the first two batters, but reliever Jonathan Abbott got the next three batters to hit infield grounders that ended the game.
Charles City jumped in front to stay in the home half of the first inning. Amelia starter John Patterson gave up a one-out walk to Dominique Williams and a single by Abbott to ignite the surge. After a wild pitch moved both into scoring position, a throwing error on Roger Williams’ grounder scored the first run.
With runners at first and third, Jeremy Abbott lined a single down the left field line to open a 2-0 lead. Moments later, Abbott broke for second, drawing a throw from behind the plate that Patterson cut off. But Patterson’s throw home was not in time to erase Williams who upped the count to 3-0. Abbott later scored on a Raider error on a pickoff attempt.
Charles City added two more runs in the third. Roger Williams reached on an infield single, worked his way to third, and scored on Jeremy Abbott’s sacrifice fly to right. Patterson then walked Xavier Wallace, gave up a single to Gregory Cotman, and bounced a pitch off Brian Wyatt to load the bases. Wallace scored when center fielder Chase Amos dropped Albert Post’s fly ball.
Amelia cut the deficit in half with a three-run fourth, but Charles City got two back in the bottom of the frame as Jonathan Abbott led off with a solo homer over the center field fence and Roger Williams (walk) scored on a wild pitch.
Amelia added a run in the sixth and Charles City followed suit as Jonathan Abbott singled and scored on Roger Williams’ fly out to left.
Williams, meanwhile, struck out 10, but walked nine and hit three batters. Luckily for the hosts, Amelia stranded 12 runners on base.
Amelia’s Raiders built a 14-0 lead before Charles City’s Lady Panthers could break into the scoring column and went on to a 21-4 non-district softball win.
Amelia took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the April 13 affair. Charles City threatened to take the lead in the home half of the frame after Amanda Adkins led off with a single down the right field line and an error on Logan Madison’s bunt put two runners aboard with one away. But Raider pitcher Morgan Harding retired the next two batters to end the threat.
The Raiders then scored three runs in the both the third and fourth innings to take command. A seven-run fifth put the game out of reach.
Hilary Wynn scored Charles City’s initial run in the fifth. Kanesha Jones raced home on a wild pitch in the sixth. Wynn scored again in the seventh, and Amber Adkins registered the hosts’ final run on Ashton Montez’s RBI single to right.