Playing on a pretty late afternoon at Christiansburg High School the Turner Ashby Knights won a pitching duel by the score of 5-4. The win moves the Knights into Fridays Region 3A West championship against the Brookville Bees. In a classic pitching matchup, Turner Ashby’s Waring Garber and the Abingdon Falcons James Compton matched zero’s for the first five innings. The Kinights ( 21-2) finally scored a run in the top of the sixth Tanner Moyers drew a walk. He then stole second and with two outs scored on a Cody Warner doubled down the right field foul line. They would add insurance runs in the top of the seventh with Garber reaching on a Falcon error. After a sac bunt Ben Custer sharp single to center brought home Garber for a 2-0 score. They weren’t done as the Abingdon Falcons would then commit two more errors with two outs that eventually scored Custer, Koice Quintanilla and Moyers.

The Falcons ( 22-5) wouldn’t go quietly as Jacob Bowles led the bottom of the seventh inning off being hit by a pitch. Tanner Barrs would then double moving Bowles to third. The next two Abingdon batters would strike out but lead-off hitter Cade Hungate would also be drilled by a inside pitch to load the bases. With two outs and two strikes with the bases loaded, Tommy Francisco would hit a grand slam homer over the right center fence for a 5-4 score and the Falcon fans had alot to cheer about. The Knights would then change pitchers but Will Harless would double down the left field foul line. Kevin Christy would then hit a sharp grounder that was fielded by the second baseman and threw him out to end the game.

Abingdon’s Francisco knocked in four and scored a run and he also had a single in his four plate appearances. Harless also had two hits, one a single and a double. Barrs and Cedric Claridy had the other hits as the Falcons ended with six hits but they committed four huge errors. Compton took the the tough luck loss on the mound as he surrendered four runs but only two were earned. he walked two and struck out four.

Turner Ashby got two RBIs from Jesse Showalter and he picked up a save on the mound. Garber went 6.2 inns. with seven strike outs , hit two batters and walked two.He gave up five hits and was 1 for 4 at the plate. Custer, Moyers and Warner had an RBI each and one base hit each.

R H E LOB

Turner Ashby 5 5 0 3

Abingdon 4 6 4 6

T Ashby – WP – Garber, Save – Showalter

Abingdon – LP – Compton