When Eagles attack

By Ted Allen

Published: July 12, 2008

As the only two Staunton River representatives on a Vinton Post 80 team made up mostly of William Byrd graduates, rising seniors Mike Williams and Zach Divers don’t often get the opportunity to make a major impact.

But in Saturday’s second round of an American Legion baseball District 9 Showcase at Liberty University’s Worthington Stadium, the two Golden Eagles teamed up to quiet Lynchburg Post 16’s attack in a 7-4 triumph.

“We’ve worked together since T-ball,” said Divers, son of Staunton River coach Brian Divers, who serves as Williams’ catcher whenever the southpaw pitches. “I know how his stuff breaks and he knows what I can do (behind the plate). We make a good team. We have good chemistry.”

Williams gave up single runs in the top second and third innings, when Zach Roberts and Ashton Paige doubled and scored. Lynchburg managed just two more runs off him in the fifth and sixth, when Mike Bergin tripled and scored and Roberts reached on a bad-hop single over shortstop Ben Amos, who later dropped Jon Howard’s pop-up, allowing Roberts to come home.

But Williams was able to work out of a few other threats, stranding Paige at third in the fifth by inducing Lucas Signor to fly out to center.

“He kept them off-balance today,” Divers said.

“The main thing he did was he threw first-pitch strikes,” added Vinton assistant coach Jay Divers, Zach’s uncle. “If you can get ahead early, they have to hit your pitch instead of letting them look for their pitch.”

Lynchburg coach Chris England said both his pitchers and hitters struggled in their opener, before facing New River in a late game Saturday night.

“We’re capable of putting up more than four runs in a ballgame,” England said. “It was a combination of hitting and pitching for us today. We left a lot of guys on base.”

Starting pitcher Brett Haas set the table for Vinton’s five-run third by walking the bases loaded with one out before Jacob Clifton (3-4), Ryan Beyel and Divers delivered RBI hits.

Haas finished with four walks and four strikeouts through five innings.

“Brett has thrown very well at times (but) he had a hard time throwing his fastball for strikes early on,” England said. “He threw the breaking ball over (but) it’s hard to pitch consistently when you’re only throwing one pitch for strikes.

“You walk a few guys and give up a hit or two and they score runs. That’s baseball. Unfortunately, we gave up some runs that could have been avoided.”

Clifton drove in the tying runs with his bouncer down the third-base line that got past Roberts.

“It bounced over the top of third base and I tried to get my chest on it, but it hopped up over my shoulder,” Roberts said.

He said Lynchburg (5-9) didn’t take Vinton (3-6) lightly, nor can it afford to against any team in District 9.

“On any given day in this district, anybody can beat anybody,” Roberts said. “It’s a really tough district. You can’t sleep on anybody.”

“We’ve got a really good team with a lot of potential, but we haven’t put it together yet,” he added. “We were hitting the ball, but we’ve just got to get the timely hits with runners on.”