Cavaliers rout Blue Streaks 16-4 in baseball

FOREST — Opportunistic hitting and an efficient pitching performance by Jefferson Forest junior southpaw Erik Heiligenstadt helped the Cavaliers cruise past Harrisonburg 16-4 in Tuesday night’s Region III quarterfinal.

JF, coming off a dramatic 6-5 loss to Rustburg in Friday’s Seminole District championship game, bounced back in a big way, racking up 11 hits. The Cavaliers would have put the 10-run rule into effect in the fifth, but there isn’t one in postseason play.

“Coming back tonight was huge to get momentum going for the rest of the week and hopefully next week,” Heiligenstadt said. “We feel good and want to keep it rolling.”

Forest will face the winner of tonight’s quarterfinal game between Alleghany and Broadway, which was rained out Tuesday night, in Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. semifinal at Waynesboro.

Harrisonburg, which edged Stuarts Draft 4-3 in Monday’s first round with Seth Potter pitching a complete game, went through five pitchers in six innings.

“We never quite got into a groove on the mound,” Harrisonburg coach Jay Hook said. “We struggled to find the strike zone.”

Starter Jake Johnson walked the first three batters he faced and five in the first inning, when he yielded five runs on one hit.

He retired the next two batters and nearly got out of the inning unscathed before Bryan Sanderson delivered a two-run double to left. Johnson walked the next two to force in a run before ninth batter Justin Wirt greeted reliever Tucker Thigpen with a two-run single to center.

“That’s what we’ve been stressing all year long, take advantage of the opportunities and make your at-bats productive,” Jefferson Forest coach Jim Thacker said. “We had some real good at-bats and we hit the ball in the clutch and that’s what you have to do at this time of year. We had kids 1 through 9 step up.”

The Blue Streaks (9-11) batted around and rallied for three runs in the top of the second to get back in the game, sparked by Francisco Lake’s RBI double and Potter’s first home run of the year, a wind-aided, two-run, opposite-field shot to right.

“We battled back and felt pretty good (down 5-3 in the second),” Hook said. “To their credit, they kept the pressure on us. They hit some good pitches and hit the ball hard.”

JF (17-6) tacked on single runs in the second and fourth before stringing together five hits, including back-to-back doubles by Vince Claudio and Wirt, and taking advantage of four more walks and a hit batter to add eight runs in the fifth.

Heiligenstadt took command of Harrisonburg’s hitters after the second, retiring the Blue Streaks in order in five of the six innings he pitched, striking out 14, including the last six he faced.

“That second inning was tough,” he said. “Nothing worked and (pitching) coach (Matt Gouker, Lynchburg College’s all-time leader in pitching wins) came out and talked to me and calmed me down and I settled down. After that, it kind of clicked. It felt good.”

Hunter Gordon, who had offseason surgery, relieved Heiligenstadt in the seventh for his first pitching appearance of the year.

“He was real big for us last year and having him back for the playoffs is huge,” Heiligenstadt said.