LC’s record season ends

DANVILLE — A two-out, two-run rally in the top of the ninth by Johns Hopkins and three unearned runs proved to be too much for Lynchburg College’s baseball team to overcome as the Blue Jays eliminated the Hornets from the USA South Region, 7-5, Saturday at Dan Daniel Park.

Lynchburg finishes the season with a school-record 31 victories and lost just 13 games. Hopkins (38-6) went on to defeat Salisbury 9-4 in the championship game and advances to the Division III College World Series.

Fourth-seeded LC rallied to tie or take the lead four different times during the game, but three unearned runs were just too much to give the No. 2 seed.

“Walks and errors (come back to bite you),” Hornets coach Percy Abell said. “When you’re playing really good competition it comes down to who makes the fewest mistakes. We made some errors that really cost us.”

The Blue Jays scored a run in the top of the first on Rob Pietroforte’s double down the right-field line that plated Dan Merzel.

The Hornets tied the score in the bottom of the first when Cameron Grant (Heritage) homered to center.

Hopkins got its first unearned run in the third inning when LC left fielder Matt Winston dropped a flyball for a two-base error with a runner on first. Piertroforte followed with a sacrifice fly to center.

LC’s Ronnie LaBrie (Staunton River) tied it with a homer to left in the bottom of the inning.

The Blue Jays got their second unearned run in the fifth when Brian Youchak singled with two outs and took second when Winston bobbled the ball in left field. Pietroforte followed with a single, scoring Youchak and giving Hopkins a 3-2 lead.

LC put together a two-run, two-out rally to take a 4-3 lead when Winston singled to center, Mark Carlson singled to right and Ryan Litz (Jefferson Forest) tripled to left.

Hopkins answered right back with two runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Pietroforte and Jonas Fester. Pietroforte finished the day 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

Once again the Hornets evened the game in the bottom of the eighth when Litz singled to score Winston and make the score 5-5.

Spencer Garrett retired the first two Blue Jays batters in the ninth, but Fester singled and scored on Jon Solomon’s double to right center. Solomon scored on an error by third baseman Jeff Taylor (Heritage).

Hopkins’ Pat Steffee retired the Hornets in order in the bottom of the ninth. LC left 10 runners on base during the game.

Six Hornets’ pitchers allowed the Blue Jays 16 hits, a walk and four earned runs. Starting pitcher Joe Devlin worked five innings and held Hopkins to three runs (only one was earned) after earning a complete- game victory over Piedmont on Wednesday.

“I was extremely proud of our pitchers,” Abell said. “They pitched as well as any team here.”

Grant led the Hornets at the plate. He was 3-for-4 with a run, an RBI, a double and a home run. LaBrie was 2-for-4 with a run, an RBI, a stolen base and a home run. Litz was 2-for-3 with three RBIs, a stolen base and a triple.

“It’s been a great career here,” senior shortstop LaBrie said. “We all worked our butts off to get here and it’s kind of a shame to fall short, but we can’t hang our heads. We played hard.”

Senior first baseman Jon Crews said: “It was a pretty tough (loss) but we battled with them all day. There is a reason why (Hopkins and Salisbury) are ranked in the top five. They got a few more timely hits than we did. I enjoyed my time here and I’m glad I came to Lynchburg College.”

Winston, LaBrie and Crews are LC’s only seniors.

on LC’s roster.

“They had great careers,” Abell said. “They were great leaders. They are great people.

“Our goal was to come down here and try to win a game and show we belong. We did more than that. We were here on the last day (of the tournament) and I’m proud of them.”