Statesmen aim to secure high 2A seed
Published 11:41 am Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Randolph-Henry High School’s (R-H) varsity baseball team is fresh off a couple of strong performances and looks to add two more to close the regular season this week.
On Monday, the Statesmen defeated host Bluestone High School 10-6.
“I was really proud of our guys coming into more than unusual circumstances for Monday’s contest as we had to wait for the soccer game to finish before we could even get on the field to warm up,” Randolph-Henry Head Coach Joshua Barmoy said. “We could have used this as an excuse to lose focus, but we never lost sight of it. We continued to battle and were able (to) band together in the last inning to push across four runs to secure a victory.”
The score was 6-6 in the top of the seventh, and the Statesmen took the lead for good on an error, the coach noted.
“Both pitching staffs had their hands full, frequently dealing with runners on base,” Barmoy said.
Randolph-Henry out-hit the Barons 10-9.
Sophomore pitcher Tyler Case registered the win on the mound, allowing nine hits and six runs but also throwing nine strikeouts and walking only one batter.
Junior pitcher Colby Jordan contributed one inning on the mound.
The Statesmen offense finished with 10 hits. Leading the way for R-H was senior Skylar Lacks and junior Winfield Layne, who each recorded two hits.
On Thursday, Randolph-Henry fell 2-0 on the road against Goochland High School.
“As crazy as this may sound, I think we played our best game of the year in the 2-0 road loss versus Goochland,” Barmoy said. “We out-hit Goochland 7-4, and we played a cleaner game defensively, with Goochland having four errors.”
He noted that the two biggest stats to highlight from the contest were that the Statesmen left 11 runners on base and that they gave five free bases away from walks or hit by pitches.
“Skylar threw a great game for us and kept us in the game all night,” Barmoy said. “Even in the seventh inning, we had runners on second and third with two outs and could have tied it up. We were searching for a key hit with runners in scoring position all night but could not scratch one. We are going to continue to work on situational hitting, but there were many positives to take away from this game.”
R-H (13-5) concludes the regular season by hosting Buckingham County High School on Wednesday at 6 p.m. before visiting Cumberland County High School on Thursday at 5 p.m.
“Obviously, we would like to take care of business on our end by winning these last two games and completing our regular season with a 15-5 record, but more importantly we want to keep getting better each day,” Barmoy said. “We cannot and will not get complacent. Keeping our foot on the pedal as we move into the postseason is a major goal for our team.”
The coach provided some perspective on Randolph-Henry’s position as it relates to the upcoming Region 2A tournament.
“Only the top 12 teams out of 14 earn a regional berth,” he said. “We have locked in a spot in the regional tournament, but depending on how we finish and a couple other teams do will determine our overall seed.”