Michael Brumfield says he can usually tell how well his pitching outing is going to go by the first batter he faces.
On Tuesday night, he struck out the first batter he faced with a fastball that hummed across the outside corner of the plate.
Brumfield, who made some of his favorite memories as a baseball player standing on the mound at Warhill High School, went on to fan six of the first eight batters he faced on that same rubber last night for Williamsburg Post 39’s American Legion baseball team. His strong start set the table for Post 39’s 11-0 shutout of Hampton Post 31. He has yet to allow an earned run in two starts (12 innings).
“I felt pretty good after getting that first strikeout to start the game,” said Brumfield, who finished with 10 strikeouts over six scoreless innings of work. “The first at-bat of the game is always the biggest for me.”
Brumfield also held Hampton hitters to three hits before handing the ball to former Jamestown standout Matt Smith, a rising sophomore at William & Mary, who allowed one base hit before striking out the side to end the game early via the 10-run mercy rule.
“Brummy was lights out tonight,” Post 39 Coach Tom Richardson said. “We were trying to get Matt a few throws before Thursday [his next scheduled start in the rotation] and he was just dominant, too.”
Early on, it seemed as if Post 39 was going to have to lean on Brumfield’s shutout as they had managed three hits and held a slim 1-0 lead entering the fifth inning courtesy of Mikey Anerton’s sacrifice fly in the second inning.
Post 39, which improved to 4-0 on the season with the win, had struck out twice entering the fifth, but nine of the team’s 12 outs had come via fly balls.
So, Richardson employed the small-ball tactic to try to get a few runners on base by signaling for back-to-back bunts.
Thomas Richardson led off by reaching on an errant throw to first before Collan Cryts followed with a well-placed bunt that rolled down the first base line for a single.
Then the flood gates opened.
Richardson and Cryts would both score on throwing errors by Hampton before Tyler Klinedinst ripped an RBI double that plated Brumfield, who singled one batter before.
Anerton, who finished with three RBI, plated another run with a ground ball to the right side of the infield to give Post 39 a 5-0 lead before Jake Countiss broke things open with a two-out, two-RBI double to the outfield gap.
“Everything we hit early was either a fly ball or a pop up so we focused on playing small ball [in the fifth] to try and get a few guys on base,” Richardson said. “The guys settled down, [Hampton] threw it around a bit and helped us out but it got the job done.”
Hampton’s only real scoring chance came in the sixth, when Christian Rivera and Sammy Diggs reached with back-to-back base hits with two outs in the top of the sixth.
Cryts, though, who will play catcher next spring for Marymount University, made a heads-up play to get Rivera napping at third following Brumfield’s final pitch of the evening before Smith came on to finish off the shutout in the seventh.
Post 39 will face Hampton again today – the game was originally scheduled to be played at Hampton but was shifted to Warhill High due to lightning problems – before hosting Gloucester Post 75 at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Williamsburg Post 39 11 Hampton Post 31 0
Hampton- 000;000;0 – 0 4 4
Williamsburg- 010;064;x – 11 7 0
WP: Brumfield (2-0)
LP: Rivera
Post 39 (4-0)- Brumfield 2-3 (2B, 2 runs), Anerton 0-1 (SB, 3 RBI), Lowery 1-3 (2 runs), Countiss 1-3 (SB, 2 RBI)
Post 31- Rivera 2-3, Diggs 1-3, Benner 1-3
Poquoson Post 273 Edges Gloucester Post 75, 5-4
Poquoson Post 273 took a 4-3 lead into the ninth inning and held on to beat Gloucester Post 75 5-4 for its first win of the season Tuesday night.
York High graduate Trevor Kelly drove in three runs and Bryce Hinton went 3-4 at the plate to pace Poquoson’s offense.
Grafton grad P.J. Jackson got the start and allowed two runs over four innings to earn the victory.
Poquoson Post 273 5 Gloucester Post 75 4
Post 271- 100;120;001 – 5 10 1
Post 75- 001;100;011 – 4 7 1
WP: Jackson (1-0)
LP: T. Wood
Post 271 (1-2)- Kelly 2-4 (3 RBI, run), Hinton 3-4 (RBI), Ferebee 1-5 (RBI), Phifer 1-4 (run), Hunter 1-5 (run)
Post 75- Hogge 2-3 (RBI), Brown 1-2 (run, 2 BB)
