Lynchburg edges Big Island

By Ted Allen

Published: June 25, 2008

FOREST — In an American Legion Baseball game slowed by walks and plagued by errors, Lynchburg Post 16 picked up an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth and survived a three-run rally in the top of the ninth to hold off Big Island Post 217 on Wednesday night, 10-9.

It was the first win for Lynchburg (3-5) in three tries over Big Island (4-3).

Matt Bergin, who came in to catch for younger brother and former E.C. Glass teammate Mike Bergin in the seventh, led off the eighth with a single to center off Big Island reliever Donnie McKinney. He was bunted to second by his brother before scoring on catcher Josh Huffman’s second error trying to throw out a runner at third.

“I saw the ball in the dirt and I just jumped on it,” Matt Bergin said of a wild pitch that allowed him to go to third. “It was a bouncer and I just took off. He just made a bad throw and we were able to capitalize on it.”

Big Island rallied from a 10-6 deficit with three runs on four hits in the ninth before Mike Bergin got out of the jam with the tying run on second.

Bobby Shelton led off with a double to left center before Huffman delivered a one-out RBI single to left and Ragan Rudisill and Shane Timberlake had back-to-back two-out hits.

“I was catching my brother so it was pretty exciting,” Matt Bergin said. “We made it exciting at the end.”

“I really wasn’t concerned,” Lynchburg coach Chris England added of the late-night threat. “I was sitting here and I was calm. Mike had been throwing well all game and I knew it was a matter of a hitter or two before he popped somebody out or grounded somebody out. I was confident he was going to get the last out.”

Gregg Chewning picked up the win despite walking five batters and giving up six runs through the first five innings. His defense backed him up with inning-ending double plays in the fourth and fifth and he left with a 9-6 lead after Lucas Signor’s leadoff home run in the third and Lynchburg’s three-run rally in the fifth sparked by Signor’s double.

“He was missing everything low,” England said of Chewning. “He was having trouble early on finding the strike zone and he went to his breaking ball and it started working pretty well for him. He was at about 40 or 50 pitches before he actually found the zone and I think he threw about 90 pitches tonight, so we got half a good outing from him.”

Big Island coach Kelley Rus-sell rotated his defense around as usual, giving everyone a chance to play, but they committed five errors.

“We just didn’t make the plays,” he said. “You can’t make five errors along the way and expect to win. I don’t know how many unearned runs they scored, but it was at least four. We got out of sync tonight. With the (district showcase at Ferrum College) coming up, we’ve got to tighten up the defense. We’ll make the adjustments.”

“We made a few errors tonight which was a little unusual for us, but we’ll bounce back,” added McKinney, who’s diving catch robbed Ashton Paige of a double to right center in the second.

Though Wednesday’s game was moved from City Stadium to Forest Middle School, Big Is-land’s home field, Lynchburg was the home team, and it had close to its full roster available after playing with only one reserve in losses to Danville last Tuesday and Big Island on Saturday.

“When you’ve got two that are out, it’s not nearly as bad as when you have eight that are out,” said England, whose team beat Roanoke Post 3 on Tuesday. “Most of our starters are here and it’s starting to show.”