Several district tournament titles at stake tonight

By Ted Allen

Published: May 22, 2008

Of the nine baseball, softball and boys and girls soccer championship games to be waged tonight in the Dogwood, Seminole and Western Valley Districts, only one — Nelson County’s baseball game at Chatham — is do or die.
Tonight’s other eight championship games don’t even determine seedings for next weekend’s Region B, Region III or Northwest Region tournaments — only who takes home championship trophies.
On Wednesday, the Governors upset regular-season champion Appomattox 9-4 on a disputed no-hitter by Josh Ferguson. They will challenge the Cavaliers for the Dogwood’s second Region B bid at 6 p.m.
Whether or not it was a no-hitter, Ferguson’s complete-game performance was far from perfect. He walked five batters and the Governors committed between one and three errors, depending on the scorebook.
“They had eight base runners,” Nelson County coach Scott McGarry said. “That’s why we didn’t realize it was a no-hitter until the bus ride back (from Appomattox). The issue of no hits never even surfaced in our minds.”
He faced the minimum 15 batters over the final five innings, with freshman shortstop Jordan Wooten and senior second baseman Chris Jones turning their 12th double play of the season in the sixth before striking out three of the last four batters he faced, finishing right at 100 pitches.
Nelson tagged Appomattox ace Tim Dudley (7-1) with his first loss in his first game back from the disabled list after straining his shoulder May 1 at Dan River. It was the Governors’ first time facing Dudley since the Raiders played in the Seminole the past two seasons. He struck out six in three innings, but was rocked on four consecutive at-bats in the third, with ninth batter Chris Garwood and Wooten sandwiching doubles around back-to-back home runs by Andy Gordon and Jones.
McGarry hopes that power surge continues tonight at Chatham, after Nelson’s 1-hour, 45-minute road trip.
“We’ve been a streaky team all year,” he said. “We’ve hit well when we’ve been on. Seeing Dudley and having success against him really lifted our dugout. I don’t expect a low-scoring game. I expect (another) scoring contest.”
The Cavaliers won the regular season and tournament titles last spring after rallying to beat the Governors in the semifinals.
“That’s become a rivalry game for us because when we get together there’s usually a lot riding on it,” McGarry said. “Our season’s ended down there more than once and we’ve beaten them in the postseason before.”
Heritage would like to carry over some of its hitting from Wednesday’s 22-6 Seminole District semifinal throttling of Rustburg into tonight’s final at home against regular-season champion Jefferson Forest, which won last year’s tournament.
With no 10-run rule in effect in tournament play, the Pioneers batted around on the Red Devils’ pitching reserves, scoring five runs in the first, second and fourth. After knocking out starter Chris Walker in the second, they kept roughing up the bullpen, which experienced control problems.
“It was just one of those games where you try to keep playing because you got to play seven,” Heritage coach Paul Johnson said. “They were running guys in there, I can’t remember the names.”
He expects a tougher test from JF tonight, though both teams, like Rustburg, might try to save their top pitchers for next Monday’s and Tuesday’s Region III openers.
“It’s going to be a fun game to play with the tournament championship on the line and with the seedings already locked in,” Johnson said, noting Heritage will host Stuart’s Draft on Monday at 6 p.m. “There’ll be no pressure.”
Altavista’s softball team withstood a pressure cooker in Wednesday night’s 3-2 triumph over defending Group AA state champion William Campbell in the Dogwood semifinal.
“The team felt like they had the monkey on their back because they hadn’t beaten Campbell for two years,” Altavista first-year coach Tim Fenn said.
The Colonels, who lost to Gretna 3-2 in nine innings last Friday in a game that could have created a three-way playoff for the regular-season title, get a rematch at Gretna today at 5 p.m.
“The only thing on this game is pride for both teams,” Fenn said. “As much as we would like to have a district tournament championship, we’re much more focused on the (Region B playoffs) ahead.”
Altavista will play at 17-0 Buckingham at 5 p.m. before Gretna hosts Randolph-Henry at 6 p.m. in Monday’s quarterfinals. They wouldn’t meet the Hawks again until the Region B final.
“I hope we meet Gretna in the regionals because that means we’re both … going on to states,” Fenn said.