Menchville, Hanover Advance To Baseball Final
The Menchville Monarchs pile onto each other, after upending the West Springfield Spartans in state semifinal action on Saturday. Menchville will play Hanover on sunday for the state AAA championship.
Photo By Marc Gold \ Gameday Magazine | VIEW GALLERY
Senior RHP Jharel Cotton pitchen 4 2\3 innings of solid relief for the Menchville Monarchs on Saturday, helping his team to advance to the state finals Sunday.
Photo By Marc Gold \ Gameday Magazine | VIEW GALLERY
Senior 3B Bryson Kemler trots home after his 2nd home run of the night...only his 3rd of the season...and Hanover defeats the Cox Falcons to advance to Sunday's state final game at Westfield on Sunday.
Photo By Marc Gold \ Gameday Magazine | VIEW GALLERY
CHANTILLY, VA - For the Menchville Monarchs, Jharel Cotton proved to be sweet relief. Pitching the final 4.2 innings in the Virginia AAA baseball state semifinal at Westfield High School, the senior held down West Springfield (23-5) bats while striking out 12 on Saturday.
As for the Monarchs' offense, they came through after falling behind. A critical two-RBI, tie-breaking single by Jeff Gray was the difference in Menchville's 6-5 nail biter victory, sending them to its first state title game.
With the potential winning run at the plate in the seventh, Cotton whiffed Charlie Morgan to end the game.
The win keeps alive a spectacular season in which the club (25-2) from Newport News started 13-0 and, at one point, enjoyed a No. 1 ranking in the Baseball America poll. "We've had adversity, but these guys just keep plugging away," head coach Phil Forbes said. "These kids are unbelievable with the fight that they have."
Cotton baffled Spartan batters by changing speeds. "I just got after the hitters and mixed up my pitches," he said. "My curveball, my changeup, my fastball. I was hitting the corners. Everything was working."
Starting in right field, Cotton came in for Monarchs starting pitcher Matt Armstead, who gave up four runs on five hits in 2.1 innings of work. He also hung tough after getting hit in the left hand with a pitch while batting in the sixth. Forbes contemplated bringing in a new hurler, but Cotten helped sway his decision. "He told me, as he's said all year, 'Coach, I'm going to bring it home,'" Forbes said.
The Monarchs, who plated 219 runs during the regular season, got the scoring going in the top half of the first. With two out and a runner on second, Devorn Lake drilled Spartan starting pitcher Mike Kent's 0-1 offering over the tall center field fence. The early lead wouldn't last long. West Springfield, champions of the Northern Region, countered with a pair or runs in the bottom half of the game's initial frame, thanks in part to a pair of solo blast. The first came courtesy of UNC bound Bryn Renner with one out. The second went to center field off the bat of Morgan.
Renner added to his production in the third and gave his club the lead. After an errant pickoff attempt by Armstead allowed Spartan runner Aaron Self to scoot over to second, the senior Renner delivered with a double down the left field line. He would quickly be plated by a Morgan RBI single, making the score 4-2 in favor of West Springfield and prompting Forbes to make the pitching change and insert Cotton.
The Monarchs soon began to chip away on offense. "Even when we're down, we always have the feeling that we're not going to lose," Gray said. "We just have that confidence that we are going to win each time we go out there."
A run-scoring double by Logan Senelis-Jose' in the fourth cut the deficit to one.
Three straight hits to open the fifth, including a single to left field by Cotten, tied the score at four apiece. Gray delivered in the following frame with two runners on.
"I've been seeing curveballs from (Kent)," the team's starting catcher said. "Then, he started to give me fastballs. I saw one that I liked on the outside part of the plate and drove it the other way."
The sophomore's single to right field gave the Monarchs the edge they and their mound man would need. Cotton's only run allowed came in the seventh when Renner singled. But he would gather himself to record his final 'K'.
Menchville advances to the Virginia AAA state final against the Hanover Hawks, who were 3-0 victors over Eastern Region champions, the Frank W. Cox Falcons.
In that game, Hawk senior 3B Bryson Kemler provided all the runs in the game, to propel his team to the championship game on Sunday. Coming into the day hitting only one home run all season, Kemler doubled that output with 2 in the game...a 2-run blast in the 5th inning, and a solo shot in the 7th. Senior RHP Jake Mayers, the Central Region Player of the Year, kept the Cox batters at bay most of the night. After scattering 3 hits in the 1st three innings, Mayers got himself in a jam in the 4th, when Cox loaded the bases with nobody out. But he would bear down, and retire the next three Falcon batters, and the threat was averted. Cox would threaten again in the 5th inning, but Mayers settled again, and got out of the inning striking out the side, and Cox would not pressure again.
The AAA championship game, will take place on Sunday at 4 p.m., at Westfield high school, and can be heard live on the Gameday Radio Network, beginning with the Pregame Show at 3:30pm, with Tom Whipple and Grant Paulsen.
