The Lafayette Rams may not have entered the season as the favorite to top the Bay Rivers District standings, but their 10-9 win over York on Thursday has them in a three-way tie with the Falcons and the Warhill Lions for first place with about a month left in the regular season.
The Rams did not come to their win over the Falcons easily. Despite holding a 10-6 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Rams’ advantage quickly narrowed after the Falcons scored three runs on three hits — from Josh Smith, Kemp Estes and Liam Griffin — two walks and a hit batsman, loading the bases with no outs.
But the Rams held onto a one-run advantage to end the Falcons rally and the game after closer Tyler Kirby, a senior, pitched the Falcons into a double-play followed by a strikeout —on a 3-2 count—to solidify his team’s place as a top contender in the district.
“We may live off the high a little bit, but come [practice] we’re going to go back out and work,” said junior Solomon McCray, the Rams right fielder who went 3 for 3 with a walk Thursday. “We’ve got to push the pedal to the metal now. Everyone’s going to be gunning for us.”
McCray proved right away why he is batting cleanup in the Rams lineup when he opened scoring with a two-run homer over the center field fence to give the Rams a 2-0 lead at the end of the first inning.
The Rams then built on their two-run lead in the third inning, leaning on small-ball to get the job done. Andre Lipcious led off with a groundball that took a hard bounce off third base to soar into left field. Two batters later, McCray’s single made a similar journey down the third base line to put runners on the corners. Jeremiah Antle then hit a sacrifice fly to score Lipcious, and Daniel Blankenship hit an RBI double down the left field line to give the Rams a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the third.
The Falcons evened the score in the bottom half of the inning with a four-run rally that started with a Brandon Harvell double to the center field wall. Dalton Dye followed with an RBI single to center field, and Trevor Kelly kept the hitting spree going with another single to the outfield. Coleman Ingram notched an RBI with a double to the outfield, and Smith had an RBI of his own with a single to right field. After a pitching change, Brian Willis capped off the Falcons rally with an RBI groundout.
But the Rams did not let the Falcons have the momentum for long, as senior first baseman Warren Atkins hit a solo shot over the center field wall to lead off top of the fifth.
Lafayette then added just enough insurance, thanks to a two-run doubles from Austin Cohn and Stephen Howard and an RBI single from Atkins, to reach 10 runs.
The Falcons started their comeback in the bottom of the fifth on Kemp Estes’ two-run single, but their seventh-inning rally fell just short.
“They’ve been hitting the ball well all year,” Rams Coach Rick Schenk said. “They work at it. I don’t even have to tell them. They love the game, so they work hard on their own.”
Though the win ties the Rams (7-1 BRD) with the Falcons (7-1 BRD), Schenk did not want that detail weighing on his players’ minds—nor does he want their new status atop the standings to shake their focus.
“We’re a young team. It’s up to us coaches to keep them focused and not let them go down the next game,” Schenk said. “We have to stay hyped up after a big game like this. And the way to do it is to have the push each other at practice.”
Luc Lipcious, who relieved starter Mark Rivera in third inning, earned the win for the Rams and tallied four strikeouts. York starter Dalton Dye, who pitched three strikeouts, gets the loss.
Lafayette (7-1 BRD) will host Poquoson (3-5 BRD) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m., while York (7-1 BRD) will travel to Grafton (4-3 BRD).starts.
