New Kent takes pair from Bruton in season finale

New Kent pitcher Austin Pierce pitched four innings of shutout ball in winning game one of the twin-bill with Bruton.

Alan Chamberlain photos

Overcoming uncharacteristic errors along with a 45-minute tornado warning delay, New Kent’s Trojans closed out the baseball regular season with a doubleheader sweep of Bruton’s visiting Panthers.

The Trojans earned a 2-0 shutout in game one that went six innings (doubleheader games are five frames each). Then the hosts held on for a 3-2 triumph in game two of Thursday’s affair.

“We made some mistakes today,” said Trojan coach Ronnie Cox. “I praised the team after Tuesday’s game about the little things like bunting, steals, and sacrifices that we did so well to win. But that was our Achilles’ heel today. We made some errors, used poor judgment, and made [game one] unnecessarily long.”

Two Trojan runners picked off base foiled a New Kent scoring effort in the third inning. Extra base hits in the fourth and fifth went for naught.

Tyler Lambert reached base on an error to lead off the Trojan sixth, but then came the tornado warning delay. That break, however, became just what the hosts needed in order to regroup.

When play resumed, Kevin Karaffa bunted Lambert to second. Trey Cox followed, jumping on pitcher Tyler Floyd’s first offering for a RBI double into the left-center field gap. Cox took third on a wild pitch and scored on Chris Beshai’s hot grounder off third baseman Zach Calloway.

Lambert came on in relief of starter Austin Pierce to register the save. Pierce, meanwhile, got the win, scattering three hits in four innings of shutout pitching.

In game two, the Trojans jumped on top in the first on Lambert’s RBI single that scored Steven Carpenter (walk). Lambert, Karaffa, and Cox poked consecutive singles in the third to up the advantage to 2-0 before Beshai’s sacrifice fly drove in the hosts’ final run.

Trojan pitcher Mitchell Metheny cruised into the fifth and final frame on a 3-0 lead. But he ran into trouble by bouncing a pitch off the leadoff batter and giving up singles to load the bases. A sacrifice fly scored Bruton’s first run while a single closed the gap to 3-2.

Beshai relieved Metheny on the mound, retiring the last two batters for the save. Metheny gave up seven hits and struck out five in registering the win.

The Trojans, now 13-7, are scheduled to host Southampton on Monday at 5 p.m. in the conference tournament quarterfinals.

Trojan runner Tyler Robertson slides safely into third, beating Bruton shortstop Nate Florence to the bag.