Raiders hold off rally by host Pioneers in non-district clash

Appomattox’s Dylan Fanney made a nice running catch just short of the fence in centerfield to rob Heritage’s Allen Seufert’s bid to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh inning and preserve the Raiders’ 7-5 non-district victory, Wednesday night at Heritage.

“That ball was hit pretty good,” Raiders coach Joe Caruso said. “(Fanney) is a JV player that I brought for this game. He did a terrific job in center for us. He got a really good jump on a couple of balls. We always preach defense and pitching and we got it (tonight).”

The Pioneers, who trailed 6-1 going into top of the fourth, fought back and had runners on first and second with two outs when Seufert crushed a ball that looked like it might clear the bases and tie the game until Fanney ran it down.

“That’s baseball,” Heritage coach Paul Johnson said. “(Seufert) hit the ball on the nose. You just have to keep working hard.

“But we didn’t make plays and they did. They made more plays and out-hit us. They outplayed us.”

Appomattox (1-1) took advantage of four Pioneers’ errors to score five unearned runs in the first three innings as the Raiders put a pair runs on the board in each of the first three frames. An error by Heritage (0-1) led to an unearned run in the top of the first, when Appomattox’s Sam Webber and Gary Crawford delivered RBI singles.

A throwing error and another RBI-single scored runs for the Raiders in the second and Patrick Mayberry cashed in for two more unearned runs in the third with a two-out, two-run double.

Webber, Crawford and Kenny Scott each had two hits for Appomattox. Webber and Mayberry each collected two RBIs and Scott scored a pair of runs.

“We swung the bats pretty good,” Caruso said. “I was really pleased.”

The Pioneers scored two runs in the fourth to make it 6-3 on a two-out, two-run double off the fence in the left-center field gap. Heritage added another run in the fifth when James Carter drew a bases-loaded walk that trimmed Appomattox’s lead to 6-4.

The Raiders answered in the seventh on Bryce Bradshaw’s RBI-single that extended their lead to 7-4 but Heritage went down swinging.

Eric Coleman tripled with one out and scored on Trevor Stevens’ single to center. After David Seekins popped up for the second out, Carter drew his fifth walk of the game to put the tying run on base.

Seufert finished 1-for-3 with two RBIs, Coleman was 1-for-1 with a walk and a run and Stevens was 2-for-2 with an RBI for the Pioneers.

Drew Coleman (1-0) picked up the win for Appomattox, working four innings and allowing two earned runs. Seufert took the loss despite allowing just one earned run in three innings of work.

The game was a final tune-up for both teams who kick off district play on Friday.

The Raiders begin their Dogwood District schedule by hosting William Campbell and Heritage opens the Seminole District play by hosting Jefferson Forest.