Alex Love
Blue Ridge baseball coach Travis Henson gets the team together for final pre-game instructions.
Alex Love
Blue Ridge baseball players warm up to resume play after a 40-minutes lightning delay.
Blue Ridge fell to the Seneca Bobcats Monday night at The Ridge, 4-1, in a second-round District II, AAA baseball playoff game. Blue Ridge’s 17-game win streak was snapped.
The Tigers will play No. 2 seed Broome at Blue Ridge Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in an elimination game. The winner plays at Seneca Friday for the District championship.
There was a 40-minutes delay due to lightning during the fourth inning.
“Both teams had to deal with the same thing,” Blue Ridge Head Coach Travis Henson said. “I don’t use that as an excuse at all. It’s just a matter of coming out after (the delay) and playing.”
Blue Ridge scored its only run in the first inning when Ethan Few scored Elijah Henderson.
Seneca Bryson Whaley held Blue Ridge to just five hits on 92 pitches.
“It was crazy effort, I give all my credit to my teammates,” Whaley said. “My defense played amazing tonight. That’s what I’m most proud of, it’s a crazy awesome team win.”
“(Whaley) threw strikes to make plays and his team backed him up,” Henson said. “He did an outstanding job, and so did our pitcher. We just couldn’t make plays behind him.”
John Coker finished with four strikeouts for the Tigers. Colby Thomas pitched the bottom of the sixth and Zach Waddell closed out the game.
Alex Medlin scored the first run for the Bobcats in the fourth, followed by Walker Lathrop who scored what proved to be the wining run in the fifth. Landon McLane scored another run for Seneca in the sixth and Petey Ridley brought in the final run.
“We didn’t get outs on bunts a lot of times and that really hurt us,” Henson said. “I felt like we gave a lot of things away offensively. Well the last time our backs were against the wall we came back and won six straight. So if we can do that again, we will play in the state championship, so we’re still going for it one pitch at a time.”