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April 17, 2009
Atlee – Henrico gave everything it had. At the end, it was not enough. The “Warriors” again squandered a healthy lead to drop a Capital District heartbreaker to Atlee 9-8. “I don’t know what to say except these losses are teaching us how to cope with adversity and build character,” said Henrico head coach Ken Schrad. “I’m just not sure how many more such lessons we can stomach.” Going into the bottom of the sixth, Henrico held an 8-3 lead. When the sixth inning ended, it was trimmed to a slim 8-7 margin. The seventh inning was not kind. In the top of the frame, Corvell Durham reached on an error with two outs and was standing on second base. Nick Toombs came on to pinch hit. Working the count full against Atlee’s Taylor Sanderfur, he fouled off two more pitches before slapping a looping line drive to left field. Durham should have scored easily, but began coasting to home apparently unaware that “Raider” left fielder Jordan Underwood was throwing to the plate. Durham was tagged out at the plate and Atlee had the momentum it had been waiting for all game. Paul Bateera, pitching in relief, got Mitch Keeler to bounce a ball in front of the plate, but it glanced off Bateera’s glove and over the mound for an infield hit. Austin Young hit the first pitch he saw over the fence in right center field for a walk-off two run home run to win the game. “It’s a mystery why we can’t finish games,” said Schrad. “As a coaching staff, we just can’t find the right combination to shut down the opponent when we need it most. We start with multiple-run leads that all teams would love to have going into the last couple of innings.”  | | Landon Prentiss |
The loss wiped out another stellar performance by Henrico’s Landon Prentiss on the mound and at the plate. His three run home run in the second inning gave himself a 4-0 lead. Through five innings, he gave up just three runs while scattering seven hits. Two of those were doubles by Underwood.Asking Prentiss to continue into the sixth inning proved to be too much. He hit the first batter with a pitch. The next batter grounded into a fielder’s choice. He then walked two to load the bases. The pitch count was 101. The change was made to Bateera. But, the table was set for Atlee’s come back as all three runners scored before the inning ended plus one more charged to Bateera who walked the first batter he faced. Four runs scored despite just one base hit and no errors in the inning. Sandefur pitched a complete game for Atlee. It took 134 pitches to get the win. A victory makes arm recovery so much easier. He gave up just five hits. He struck out nine. He did walk five and hit four batters with pitches. Three Henrico batters reached base on defensive errors. “We played great defense (only one error). We scored lots of runs without a lot of hits. We just didn’t win the game. It’s as simple as that,” said Schrad. “The kids need to realize we’re playing better baseball and it is bound to eventually pay off.” GAME PHOTOS
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