Boys’ baseball: New Kent 8 Tabb 4

NK first baseman Trey Cox (15) and catcher Nick Valentino leap to snare a Tabb foul, but the ball fell just beyond the fence and their reach.

Alan Chamberlain photo

Winning 8-4, New Kent’s Trojans managed to sweep the season series with Bay Rivers District foe Tabb, but not without an unintentional assist from the Tiger coaching staff.

The host Trojans built a 6-3 lead through four innings of the April 28 clash, but in the top of the fifth, the Tigers loaded the bases with no outs and pushed one run across. New Kent retired the next two batters, but Tabb appeared to score again on a bases loaded single to make it a 6-5 contest.

But Trojan coach Ronnie Cox had taken note of a courtesy runner the Tiger coaches inserted at third base just before the single. That player, who had started the game as the Tiger first baseman, had been removed earlier, thus to reenter he could only run for the player that replaced him. That player was not occupying third.

“I wasn’t going to say anything unless they got a hit,” Cox said afterward. “When they got that hit, I knew it was time to address it.”

The umpires ruled in Cox’s favor, negating Tabb’s fifth run and calling the courtesy runner out to end the inning with a 6-4 score. The Trojans then put the game out of reach with two more runs in the sixth.

At the start, the hosts spotted Tabb a 1-0 lead before taking a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the first. Tabb overtook the Trojans with a two-run second, but the hosts used RBI hits by Jake Countiss (double) and Nick Valentino (single) to move back in front. Valentino scored on a wild pitch to open a 6-3 lead.

In the sixth, Kevin Karaffa scored on an error and Dylan Walton drove in the final run with a single.

“We were just kind of flaring those base hits through,” said Cox after his team improved to 9-4 in district play and 10-4 overall. “Beating a team the second time around is never easy. They know us and we know them. We just settled down and kept playing.”