Big Island, Lynchburg seeded second, fifth in District 9 tourney

Big Island Post 217 very nearly defended its American Legion Baseball District 9 regular-season title when Wednesday Danville Post 325 was swept in its season-ending doubleheader against Lynchburg Post 16 and Roanoke Post 3 at Dan Daniel Memorial Park.

But Danville (9-4), which will receive an automatic berth into the July 26 to 31 state tournament as its host, held onto first place by virtue of tie-breaker when Big Island (9-4) had its unfinished game against Rocky Mount, which was tied 8-8 in the 14th inning, ruled a forfeit loss for both teams.

Seeded second, Big Island will play the winner of today’s game between seventh-seeded Roanoke and 10th–seeded Salem on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Kiwanis Park in Salem. Should it win that, it would face the winner between third-seeded Rocky Mount and sixth-seeded Botetourt on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

“I like where we’re at right now,” Big Island coach Kelley Russell said. “We’ll move on and see what happens.”

Trevor Johnston is slated to pitch Saturday’s game with Vince Claudio on tap for Sunday’s start.

Danville, meanwhile, will draw the winner between eighth-seeded Martinsville and ninth-seeded Vinton on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Salem’s Memorial Stadium.

Lynchburg Post 16 is one of the hottest teams in the district, finishing at 7-7 after starting out 1-4.

“We’re excited, focused,” Lynchburg coach Chris Glaize said. “We’re on a little wave and we’re going to ride it as long as we can.”

Post 16, seeded fifth, will take on defending tournament champion New River Post 68, the fourth seed, at 3:30 p.m. today at Kiwanis Field, where it will look to bounce back from Sunday’s 18-11 loss to the same team.

“We absolutely did not play well,” Glaize said, noting his pitchers experienced uncharacteristic control problems, issuing nine walks. “Coming off a big win over Big Island (last Friday in extra innings), I expected us to be bouncing off the walls to play baseball. (But) we didn’t show up.”

If Lynchburg wins, it wouldn’t have to play again until Sunday at 12:15 p.m. If it falls, it would play Saturday’s first losers’ bracket game at 9 a.m. against the Roanoke-Salem loser.

E.C. Glass ace James Gaines is expected to start on the mound today, though he will have plenty of backup support available if needed.

“Pitching is carrying us,” Glaize said, noting Lynchburg has allowed the fewest number of runs in the district this season. “That’s going to continue to be our strongpoint. In a tournament like this, you realize how important pitching is and how important it is to have an abundance of it.”

Brookville’s Jeff Myers is 3-0 after throwing a shutout against Botetourt and earning the win against Danville.

“(Rustburg’s Chris) Walker is back to being Chris Walker again,” Glaize added, noting he spent the first half of the season at the beach. “He’s got a lot of bite on his slider and his velocity’s back. And (Brookville’s) David Goulding has been pitching extremely well all year. He’s going to be in the mix.”

Glaize said New River is in a similar situation as Lynchburg.

“They’re a lot like us,” he said. “We’re pretty evenly matched, both very young and both kind of building for the future. I’m sure they’ve been talking about how young they are this year, and how great it would be to win this year and get back next year.

“We have just about everybody coming back,” he added. “If we can get up there (to the district final to reach the state tournament) this year, we’d have a great chance to win twice in a row.”

Since Danville will receive an automatic state berth as the tournament’s host, a second bid will go to the team that finishes highest.

Last year, Lynchburg and Big Island met in a consolation final with Big Island pulling out a 19-18 victory after both teams’ pitching staffs were depleted. It then knocked New River off once before losing the championship game.