Waynesboro seemed to put the Staunton Braves on cruise control with a seven-run eighth, but the Braves actually brought the tying run to the plate after trailing by seven with two outs in the ninth before the Generals finished off a wild 14-11 victory Wednesday night.
The teams used nine pitchers, who gave up a combined 29 hits and four home runs, two by each team, including Waynesboro slugger Michael McClellan’s league-leading fifth.
The Generals (19-14) scored four in the fifth to turn a 4-1 deficit into a 5-4 lead, the big blow being McClellan’s homer, a three-run shot. Staunton (18-13) responded with a three-spot in the bottom half of the fifth, getting a leadoff homer from Gunnar McNeill and a two-run shot from Elliott McCummings to take a 7-5 lead.
Waynesboro tied it with a pair of runs in the seventh on a Eugene Vasquez RBI double and a sacrifice fly RBI from Garrett Russini.
Waynesboro took the lead in the eighth with the help of a misplayed Tyler Orris bunt with runners on first and second and nobody out that allowed two runs to score and opened the floodgates. Orris scored on a wild pitch, Kyle Pitts scored Cole Gruber with an RBI single, and Russini broke things open with a three-run homer that pushed the Generals lead to 14-7.
Staunton wasn’t yet done, loading the bases with two outs in the ninth before scoring on a walk, an error and a two-run double by McNeill that brought Joey Rodriguez to the plate with runners on second and third as the tying run. Rodriguez worked a 2-0 count in his favor, then flew out to second base to end it.
The result of the game puts the Generals and Braves in a virual tie for fourth place in the VBL, two and a half games back of Valley League-leading Front Royal.
Waynesboro is back on the road Thursday at Aldie.
More online at www.WaynesboroGenerals.net.
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Chris Graham
