Manassas Journal Messenger | Spotsylvania rolls past North Stafford
By THOMAS C. DOZIER
SPOTSYLVANIA — Three Spotsylvania players went for the base-hit trifecta as the Knights continued their mastery of Stafford County opponents by beating North Stafford 9-4 in the Spotsylvania Eagles Spring Break Tournament on Wednesday.
Seniors Will Rogers and Pat Thacker and freshman Steven Johnson all had three hits as the Knights improved to 6-2 on the season.
According to Rogers, it was a matter of business as usual.
“We just come out and try to play hard,” Rogers said. “We figure if we can come in here and get a few wins we might be able to carry that momentum into our [Battlefield] District play.”
North Stafford broke on top on the strength of run-scoring hits by the Hendricks brothers ‘ Jeremy and Jamison. Jeremy, a junior second baseman, delivered a RBI single over the third base bag to score Ben Krasinski, who had reached on a walk. Jamison, a sophomore right fielder, followed with a double to left center to score his older brother.
However, the lead didn’t last long as the homestanding Knights sent nine players to the plate in the bottom of the inning, pounding out six hits and scoring five runs.
Spotsylvania shortstop Scott Kimble had the biggest blow — a 2-run double to score Rogers and Thacker, who had back-to-back singles to leadoff the inning. Before it was all over, starting pitcher Aaron Richards, Steven Johnson and Greg Kirsch had RBI singles and the home team went up 5-2.
Spotsylvania added another run in the fifth when Kirsch squeezed home Steven Johnson and tacked on three more runs in the sixth highlighted by a RBI double by Spencer Johnson.
“It was nice to get two wins from a quality program like North Stafford,” Spotsylvania coach Tim Deysu said. “But it’s all about executing. We didn’t execute in our last game but today we did. We were extremely aggressive at the plate and on the base paths. Sometimes it’s a gamble but when you execute you can make things happen.”
For the Wolverines (6-4), the No. 8 and 9 hitters — Steven Bray and Ben Krasinski — collected two hits apiece. North Stafford starter Peter Spence suffered his first loss of the season after going only 21/3 innings while Krasinski closed out the game for the Wolverines.
“I was happy that we came out battling,” North Stafford coach Craig Lopez said. “Right now we can’t dwell on this loss because we have three more games in the next 48 hours.”
Both teams were back in action for a second game on Wednesday. Spotsylvania played host to Colonial Forge, a team it beat earlier in the season while North Stafford played Chancellor. On Thursday the two teams have games at noon and 3:30 p.m.