Three Panthers teams post wins in tournament semi-finals
By Sharon Kilpatrick
Three Rappahannock County High School teams got wins at home in Bull Run District tournaments on Tuesday.
The boys’ soccer team won 2-0 over Clarke County. The softball team had a 6-3 win over Madison County, and the baseball team won 2-1 over George Mason. All three thus move on to championship action on Thursday.
As regular season champs, the softball girls get to play at home in a game that begins at 5 p.m. They will face Manassas Park, which knocked off second place seed Clarke County 4-2 in the other semi-final game Tuesday.
The two boys’ teams finished second and will play the regular season champions in away games on Thursday, both scheduled for 7 p.m. under the lights. The baseball team will travel to Strasburg for the final game of the Bull Run Tournament, and the soccer team will travel to George Mason. The boys’ soccer and baseball teams are also guaranteed slots in the Region B tournaments which begin on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, but they all need tournament championships to host those games.
In softball Rappahannock jumped out to an early lead. Amanda Smoot draw a walk to begin the bottom of the first inning. She successfully stole second and got to third on a passed ball. Christina Naramore’s single drove her home for a 1-0 lead.
In the second inning, Megan Lee got a single and scored on a triple by Emily Carter for a 2-0 Rappahannock lead. The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning. Amanda Smoot got to first base on a dropped third strike. Morgan Stephens got to first on a Madison error. Christina Naramore’s single scored one run and again there were runners on first and second. Rebecca Tupper’s triple got two more runs in, and Tupper herself scored on a passed ball, giving Rappahannock a 6-0 lead.
The score remained the same through the sixth inning, but in the top of the seventh, Madison got to work. Panther pitcher Krystal Heflin got the first batter out, but then gave up a hit, a walk, and another hit and the score was 6-1.
With runners on first and third, a Madison batter hit a fly ball that was caught. Holding the lead batter on third, the first base runner made it to second. A passed ball allowed another Madison run to score. Before the dust had cleared, Coach Richie Burke had put Amanda Smoot in to pitch and Madison had narrowed the score to 6-3, but that was the end of that as Smoot got the third out and the game was over.
In six and two-thirds innings Heflin had eight strikeouts while walking five and allowing five hits. Amanda Smoot had one walk and a strike-out. Each team had five hits, and the difference was mostly in errors. Madison had three and Rappahannock only one.
Over on the baseball field, Ethan Russell pitched the whole game getting 13 strikeouts while giving up two hits. Rappahannock had three hits, singles by Jonathan Butler, Bobby Czekaj and Chase Tupper. In the third inning L.B. Settle drew a walk. Jonathan Butler had a single, followed by Czekaj’s single. Butler and Czekaj both scored while Madison was trying to get Russell out in a run down.
Coach Jeff Jenkins said, “Both pitchers did extremely well. We fooled some people today.” He noted that George Mason’s pitcher had lost only four games in three years coming into Tuesday’s game with Rappahannock.
He said Rappahannock was able to get out of a tough third inning when Mason loaded the bases, and never had serious problems after that.
At the soccer field behind the high school, Rappahannock got an early 1-0 lead over Clarke County on Huck Pace’s second goal of the year assisted by Gary White about 10 minutes into the game. That score held up for the rest of the first half. In the second half Will Sonnett scored the second goal with an assist by Davey Torrance.
Meanwhile track stars were practicing as the soccer teams warmed up. Rappahannock will send six to the Region B track tournament on Friday, May 25, at Monticello High School.
Irving Smith will compete in long jump, triple jump, high jump and with the 4 X 100 relay team. Jesse Palmer will compete with the relay team and in the 400 meter race. Daniel Rollins will compete with the relay team and in the high jump. Brook Stokes will compete with the relay team. For the girls Carly Day will compete in the 100 meter dash. Marie Scavetti will compete in the hurdles. They qualified for the Region B Tournament by finishing in the top six at the Bull Run District Tournament at Manassas Park on Wednesday, May 16.
Irving Smith won first in long jump, second in triple jump, and fourth in high jump. Rollins was fifth in high jump, and Palmer was 6th in the 400. The relay team finished second. Carly Day and Marie Scavetti were sixth in their events.
-- Sharon Kilpatrick
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