by Stephen M. Lewis
DigitalSports Richmond
slewis@digitalsports.com
Don’t say passed ball near Prince George anytime soon. Thomas Dale, on the other hand, passed ball is cool with them.
A passed ball helped the Knights defeat Prince George for the first time in seven years last month.
Tuesday night, three passed balls catapulted unbeaten TD to a 4-1 victory over the Royals, as the Knights, ranked No. 1 in the DigitalSports Top 10, are one win away from taking the Central District regular-season crown and the all-important automatic Central Region bid to go with it.
“I’m very proud of our girls,” Knights coach Dennis Jones said. “I can’t say it enough. This is something that’s real special right now.”
Sixth-ranked Prince George (11-2, 14-3) got off to a rough start. Terrific hurler Lauren Vinson (11 strikeouts) hit TD leadoff Logan Tollison.
Tollison swiped second base quickly. Then two Vinson pitches got away from catcher Ashley Lowe, the latter allowing Tollison to pounce and score from third for a 1-0 lead.
“That just really swung the momentum to their side,” Prince George coach Pat Waguespack said. “It was an uphill battle. It is pretty deflating to start out and give up one early. You really have to dig.”
TD’s remarkable pitcher, freshman Lacey Waldrop, struck out the side in the bottom of the first to get the Knights (12-0 Central, 16-0) back at the dish to dig a deeper ditch for PG.
Lauryn Nanny singled, then Christy Barron walked. Both were pushed over to second and third base on a Paulie Figueroa groundout two outs later.
Then that phrase came up again as a Vinson ball got away allowing Nanny to race in and score for a 2-0 lead.
Austin Shornak then stroked an RBI single just pass the outstretched glove of JMU-bound Caitlen Manning to score Barron for a 3-0 advantage.
Tollison came up again, and belted a Vinson offering to deep center field over Taylor Worley‘s glove. That scored Shornak for a 4-0 lead in what everyone expected to be another 1-0 nail-biter.
“With a team like Thomas Dale, that doesn’t give you much, we certainly can’t give them that start,” Waguespack said. “They got their four runs they needed. Lacey Waldrop did a good job. She was the difference.”
Both pitchers dominated the game from there, but the Royals did scratch in the fourth.
Manning legged out a single, advanced on Vinson’s groundout and got to third and home on passed balls.
The Royals threatened again in the bottom of the seventh with two outs, getting players on first and second.
Aiden O’Hare singled and Krissy Fried reached on an error.
“My heart was racing,” Jones said. “I was kind of giving [my assistant coach pre-celebratory] hi-fives. They didn’t give up at all.”
But Waldrop got her 11th strikeout to end the contest.
“Thomas Dale did exactly what they had to do,” Waguespack said. “Even though they didn’t get a lot of hits, I thought they moved the ball. The more you move the ball, the more chances you have to make something happen.”
Thomas Dale 130 000 0 – 4 3 1
Prince George 000 100 0 – 1 2 1
Waldrop and Tuck; Vinson and Lowe.
Records: Thomas Dale (12-0 Central, 16-0); Prince George (11-2, 14-3)
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