Riding the arm of ace pitcher Michael Brumfield has served Warhill High’s baseball team well so far this season, but Lions coach Joe Henzel knows he’ll need more should his team challenge deep into the postseason.
Henzel loved what he saw from all-Region I catcher Blake Wills on the hill Friday afternoon in the Lions’ 5-0 road win at Grafton.
Wills earned his first complete-game shutout of the season after holding the Clippers to four hits and no runs over seven innings of work. Henzel said the idea was to throw Wills for “five innings or so and then figure something out,” but the senior righty was in cruise control.
“It was just what the doctor ordered,” Henzel added. “He threw a gem. A lot of people say we’re a one-man band at pitcher, but Wills sent a message. He did a great job mixing his pitches and really impressed a lot of people, I think, including myself.”
With York losing at New Kent 6-3, and Lafayette rallying late to beat Tabb 6-5, that puts Warhill (11-4 BRD) in a three-team share of first place along with the Rams (11-4 BRD) and Trojans (11-4 BRD) with three regular-season games remaining.
York (10-5 BRD), losers of two straight, lost its share of the district lead for the first time all season. The Falcons’ Jimmy Angell yielded four runs in the bottom of the first inning for York, which chipped away with one run in the third, sixth and seventh innings, but never fully recovered against Trojans ace Matt Metheny, who worked out of a number of different jams as the Falcons stranded seven runners in scoring position.
The upstart Rams, who are in the midst of their best season in nearly a decade, continue to control their own fate in hopes of capturing their first district title since 2005. They’ve won four of their last five games – the last a spirited comeback victory Friday against Tabb.
The Rams trailed visiting Tabb 5-0 at home in the bottom of the sixth inning before batting around for seven singles and all of six of their runs. With two outs and the bases load, freshman Andre Lipcious was hit by a pitch to bring the go-ahead run home from third.
Tyler Kirby, who labored through the first six innings throwing over 100 pitches, capped off a gutty effort on the mound with a nine-pitch top of the seventh to seal the victory.
Should Warhill, Lafayette and New Kent win their remaining games – no easy feat given the way district play has panned out thus far – it would mark the second year in a row that a trio of teams would be crowned the district champs. In that case, district-tournament seeding would then be decided by the annual pre-season draw.
BAY RIVERS DISTRICT BASEBALL STANDINGS
New Kent 11-4
Warhill 11-4
Lafayette 11-4
York 10-5
Grafton 9-6
Poquoson 8-7
Smithfield 7-8
Jamestown 5-10
Tabb 3-12
Bruton 0-15
