York outfielder Brian Willis never even had to take the bat off his shoulders, yet he finished with a stat line (4 runs, 2 RBI) that resembles something Albert Pujols puts together during a day’s work.
That’s pretty much how things went for both teams during Wednesday’s Bay River District baseball showdown between host York and Jamestown, which the Falcons ran away with early en route to a 21-3 victory.
York’s explosive offensive display came as a result of contagious hitting as well as discipline at the plate.
Willis drew a base-on-balls in all four of his plate appearances and later scored each time, which tells much of the story for for the visiting Eagles, who walked 11 York batters and allowed six runs off errors and passed balls.
The Falcons, though, did plenty of work with the lumber too.
York finished with 13 hits to Jamestown’s six while every batter in the lineup who recorded an at-bat also recorded a hit and scored at least one run.
The Falcons did most of their damage during a third inning in which 15 consecutive batters reached base on seven hits, six walks and two errors.
Nine of those runs came off Eagles’ ace Matt Smith, who was for the most part sharp during his first two innings of work.
“He’s the fastest [pitcher] we’ve seen all season,” York coach Rusty Ingram said of Smith, a senior who will pitch for William and Mary next spring. “It took us a few innings to get our timing down and lay off the high stuff, but then we were able to string a few hits together and hit the ball hard.”
Nick Hornung, who finished 2-2 with a game-high five RBI, broke things open in the bottom of the third with the first of two 2-run doubles on the afternoon to put the Falcons ahead 5-0 after Trevor Kelly (3-5) Cole Ingram (1-3) and Josh Smith (1-3) singled consecutively to begin the string of 15 straight batters reaching base.
Hornung’s double was followed by a walk, two straight errors and a base knock from Dalton Dye before Kelly’s RBI-double to the gap put York ahead 9-0.
After four consecutive walks, Liam Griffin capped off the 13-run inning with a two-run single to give York a commanding 14-0 lead after just three innings.
The Falcons weren’t done.
Jamestown would get three runs back on a solo homerun from Liam Lowery and an RBI double from Smith – who later scored on an error – to cut the deficit to 14-3, only to witness more contagious hitting by York, which batted around for the second straight inning in the fourth.
Jamestown walked three of the first four batters in the inning ending with Williswho, for the second inning in a row, drew a run-scoring walk with the bases loaded as the Falcons went up 15-3.
York would stretch its lead to 18-3 on Hornung’s second two-RBI double of the day. Another run would score on a overthrown ball to first base before Brandon Harvell’s sacrifice fly and another Kelly double plated the final runs of the game.
“We were all clicking today,” Hornung said. “Everybody in our lineup can hit the ball, and when I got my opportunity I just tried to come up big.
“After barely beating Tabb last Friday in a game we expected to just go in and rake, it gives us a lot of confidence to win one like this over a team like Jamestown.”
Lost in a game dominated by offense was a strong season debut on the mound by Dye, who allowed four hits, three runs (two earned) to go along with three strikeouts over four innings of work.
“Going against Matt Smith, a Division I pitcher, that’s always extra incentive to go out there and pitch your best, and today it worked out,” Dye said. “I missed a few spots that led to runs and walked a couple batters, but overall I was happy with how I threw the ball.”
Jamestown coach Mike Kuebler, on the other hand, wasn’t particularly thrilled with having to burn through five different arms in four innings, but expects his team to bounce back.
“Things were moving along nicely the first few innings, and then they put together three line drives in a row and we just lost it,” Kuebler said. “We just couldn’t throw strikes.
“We’re going to wipe this one away and have a chance to redeem ourselves Friday.”
York 21 Jamestown 3
Jamestown- 000;30 – 3 6 4
York- 01(13);7x – 21 13 4
WP: Dye 1-0 (4 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 SO)
LP: Smith 1-1
York (3-0, 3-0 BRD)- Hornung 2-2 (2 runs, 2 2B, 5 RBI), Willis 0-0 (4 BB, four runs, 2 RBI), Kelly 3-5 (2 2B, 3 runs, RBI)
Jamestown (1-2, 1-2 BRD)- Lowery 1-2 (solo HR), Smith 1-2 (2B, RBI, run)
