Washington & Lee’s Davidson stifles top-seeded Lynchburg College

Washington & Lee’s Chuck Davidson improved to 2-0 this season against Lynchburg College by dominating the top-seeded Hornets in Thursday’s first game of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament.

Davidson (5-2) worked seven innings for the Generals (19-12), allowed one unearned run, three hits, a walk and struck out four batters as sixth-seeded W&L stunned LC 4-1.

“(Getting that first win) makes you feel good,” Generals coach Jeff Stickley said. “But, the pressure is still there.”

The Generals will play Randolph-Macon at 3 p.m. today while the Hornets will face Virginia Wesleyan in an elimination game at 11 a.m.

Davidson picked up his first win against the Hornets on March 30 when he threw seven-innings in the first game of a doubleheader in Lexington. He allowed four runs, three earned runs, seven hits, no walks and struck out six. Of the Hornets five losses to ODAC teams this season, two have come on the arm of Davidson.

Brendan Clark relieved Davidson to start the eighth inning Thursday and was just as dominant. Clark, who earned his third save of the season, held Lynchburg to just a single while striking out two.

It appeared that the Generals might be snake bitten as W&L got the lead-off hitter on base five of the first six innings, but failed to score each time. The Hornets turned double plays in the second and third innings to help starting pitcher Bryan Breedlove get out of potential jams. LC’s catcher Chris Colquhoun also threw out a base-runner trying to steal second base in the sixth inning.

The Generals failed to move runners on sacrifice bunt attempts in the second and third innings when the batters popped up the bunts to the LC first baseman and pitcher,

“We’ve been through (not scoring after getting guys on) a lot,” Stickley said. “Hopefully, you don’t get too down on yourself, but it was kind of frustrating.”

W&L finally broke through in the top of the seventh when the wheels came off for Breedlove. After striking out the Generals’ lead-off hitter, Breedlove induced a soft, comebacker from Byron Peyster, but he fumbled with ball several times before picking it up and firing out into right field along the fence, allowing Peyster to take second. Anthony Cardona fol-lowed with a walk, Jim Plantholt flied out to right field and Drew Denzen was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Finally, C.J. Thompson flipped a single just over the glove of the Hornets’ leaping first baseman to drive in a pair of runs and take a 2-1 lead going into the top of the eighth.

Breedlove (3-3) lasted 6 2/3 innings and allowed two unearned runs, five hits, two walks and struck out two.

“We knew it was going to be tough,” Stickley said. “Breedlove is a good pitcher and he’s not going to let you to hang around. He made a couple of errors and we took advantage of it.”

The Generals added two more runs in the ninth when Cardona singled to lead off the inning and eventually scored on a wild pitch by Keith Yancey. Terrence McKelvey’s two-out, RBI double scored Thompson, who had just drawn a walk, mak-ing it 4-1 W&L.

Lynchburg’s only run came in the fourth inning when Kyle Bradley (William Campbell) drew a lead-off walk, took second on Jeff Taylor’s (Heritage) sacrifice bunt, took third on David Gaines Jr.’s (Jefferson Forest) fly out to center and eventually scored on a passed ball.

Bradley, Cameron Grant (Heritage) and Ryan Litz (Jefferson Forest) had singles for LC. David Gaines Jr. (Jefferson For-est) doubled to account for the Hornets’ four hits.

McKelvey was 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Cardona was 2-for-2 with two runs scored and a walk and Thompson was 1-for-3 with two RBIs, a run and a walk.