Waynesboro Generals win on wild walk-off, 5-4, over Charlottesville Tom Sox

A wild night in Waynesboro ended with a three-run bottom of the ninth and a walkoff on a pop-fly single by Shane Dressler that gave the Generals a 5-4 win over the Charlottesville Tom Sox on Tuesday night in Valley League baseball action at Linco Park at Kate Collins Field.

Waynesboro trailed 4-2 entering the ninth. Stephan Pitarra led off with an infield single and reached second on a throwing error. Jeremy Taylor followed with an RBI single and reached second on another Tom Sox error, then took third on a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Gridley.

A Clayton Taylor sacrifice fly tied the score at 4-4. With two outs and nobody on, Michael Brosseau singled to left. With Dressler at the plate, Brosseau stole second and advanced to third on the third Charlottesville error of the inning, setting up the heroics from Dressler, who hit what looked to be an inning-ending pop up behind shortstop, but the ball fell harmlessly to the turf after miscommunication among Tom Sox fielders.

Charlottesville had led throughout, getting on the board in the second on a Brad McKay RBI groundout, going up 2-0 in the fourth on a Seth Lancaster sacrifice fly.

Waynesboro cut the deficit to 2-1 in the fifth on an RBI single by Jeremy Taylor, but Charlottesville put up two important insurance runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Chris Clayton and Billy Cooke.

Cooke was caught in a rundown after his run-scoring hit and tagged out, but after the play, which saw Cooke aggressively contest the tag-out by Waynesboro starting pitcher Vince Braman, Generals first baseman Kevin Phillips confronted Cooke, leading to the two benches clearing, and the ejection of Phillips.

Waynesboro coach D.J. King was ejected minutes later after a heated discussion with the umpiring crew regarding the Phillips ejection. Cleanup hitter Jose Estrada had been ejected earlier in the game for arguing balls and strikes.

The Generals had another player leave the game early, Kevin Fagan, who replaced Phillips at first base, was hit by a pitch on his left wrist in the eighth.