Corey Armentrout struck out 13 while throwing eight scoreless innings, and Waynesboro got to New Market ace Aaron Cressley just enough to scratch out a 3-0 win that advances the Generals to the Valley League Championship Series.
The Generals will travel to Strasburg for Game 1 of the best-of-three championship series Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. Listen to the game live at www.WaynesboroGenerals.net.
Armentrout (sophomore, Bridgewater) was masterful in the clincher, allowing five hits and just one walk.
Sean Bucholz (junior, Southern Miss) pitched a perfect ninth to close it out.
“Never underestimate the heart of a champion,” said Generals coach Mike Bocock, whose team had New Market on the ropes before a late Rebel rally stole Game 1 and put Waynesboro on the brink of elimination.
A 12-3 win in Waynesboro in Game 2 forced Saturday’s clincher, and the matchup between the two aces. Armentrout had a 4-2 record and 2.20 ERA in the 2013 regular season, and Cressley was 4-0 with a 0.62 ERA in 2013.
Cressley was solid yet again, giving up two unearned runs on seven hits in seven innings, striking out nine and walking three.
Waynesboro broke out early, getting a run in the first on a two-out RBI double by Anthony Iacomini (Cortland State) that scored Patrick Mazeika (freshman, Stetson) from second.
The Generals added another run in the fourth on a Corbin Lucas (sophomore, Shenandoah) RBI single that scored Brian Beard (freshman, Old Dominion).
A Beard RBI single in the eighth scored Mazeika to extend the lead to 3-0. New Market got two runners on with one out on a pair of base hits by T.J. Costen and Brandon Gum, but Armentrout got Kevin Casey to fly out to right for the second out and then struck out Derek Peterson for out number three.
Bucholz got the last three outs, in the ninth, in order, inducing a groundball from Ray Lopez for the final out of the game and the series.
“We come in as the four seed. We’re expected to lose that series against Harrisonburg. Big upset there. That got things rolling. Three tough games against New Market, and we win there. That just keeps us rolling,” said Armentrout, who put up six and two-thirds scoreless innings in the first-round series clincher against Harrisonburg on Monday.
Bocock called the outing by Armentrout “one of the best pitching outings I’ve ever seen in the Valley League.”
“He’s been our go-to guy all season. He responded. He knew he had a tough guy to go against. He knew he couldn’t give up anything, and he pitched flawlessly,” Bocock said.
Support AFP
Share
Chris Graham
