Baseball can be a beautiful game. Crisp pitching, sharp fielding, strong, accurate throws… even a run down can be a beautiful thing.
This game was not that.
In a game marred by six total errors, two passed balls, and two hit-by-pitches, the Harrisonburg Turks walloped the still-winless Charlottesville Tom Sox, 8-1.
Things started well for the Tom Sox in the first, as they scraped across a run on a Seth Lancaster single after two Turk errors.
That was it for the Tom Sox. The Turks answered with three runs in the 3rd inning, with Wade Bailey singling in a run and Joe Lytle scoring two more on another single. The Turks scored three more in the 4th after two Tom Sox errors, scored another in the 7th on a passed ball (after a Aaron Dodson triple), and finished the scoring in the 8th when Shane Billings scored on a Kameron Esthay sacrifice fly.
Carlos Chavez, hoping to be drafted in a few days, made his season debut for the Turks, and put up excellent numbers despite struggling with location in a couple innings. His final line was 5 innings pitched, 3 hits allowed, 1 unearned run, 4 walks, and 7 strikeouts. He had six strikeouts in the first two innings. “I was a little amped up,” Chavez said after the game. “It started off a little rough, but other than that, it was ok.”
After Chavez, the Turks bullpen cleaned up. Eric Yankey pitched two clean innings, Patrick Wiseman threw one, and Tyler Brown, ATVL’s #6 reliever from 2014, struck out the side in the 9th.
The Turks are now 2-1, while the Tom Sox fell to 0-3.
All Things Valley League 