Hanover, Henrico Advance

by Chris Naquin
DigitalSports Richmond

Hanover, seeded first in the Capital District baseball tournament, defeated fourth-seed Atlee 7-3 in Wednesday night's semifinal game.

The Hawks will go on to face third-seeded Henrico who defeated second-seed Lee-Davis 3-1.

Jake Mayers Leads The Way

Hanover was led by star pitcher and Capital District player of the year Jake Mayers, who proved to be just that against Atlee, pitching a complete game and striking out 11.

Mayers clutch pitching late in the game shutout Atlee in the sixth and seventh innings, not allowing any chance of a come back.

Atlee, however, led most of the game.

The Raiders struck first on the score board with some heavy hitting by senior center fielder John Michael Sparagna who smashed a two run homer in the top of the second inning to take a 2-0 lead.

Hanover managed to score a run of their own in the bottom of the second inning.

Senior center fielder Aaron Adkins RBI single into right field brought in first baseman Austin Erb to decrease Atlee's lead to 2-1.

The game remained 2-1 until the fifth inning when Taylor Sandefur's RBI single for Atlee brought in senior right fielder Ryan Kontra to take a 3-1 lead on the Hawks.

Hanover rallied in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings to score six straight runs.

Laine Denton's RBI single brought in a Hanover run and immediately following, short stop Beau Flinchum hit an RBI double bringing in Thorton Glazelbrook and Denton to take the first lead of the game for Hanover.

Hanover was not done scoring.

In the bottom of the sixth the Hawks scored three more runs.

Hanover's Jeb Weymouth brought in Kirk Rohle and Aaron Adkins off his RBI double to go up 6-3 on the Raiders.

Weymouth managed to make it home when he took advantage off of a wild pitch thrown by Atlee's Cody Farrar to go up 7-3.

Mayers was excellent in the seventh as he was able to force a quick three outs to take the win and advance to the finals.

Atlee     020 010 0 - 3 6 3
Hanover 010 033 x - 7 8 1
Farrar, Young (6) and Garthright; J. Mayers and E. Mayers
Records: Atlee 12-9; Hanover 16-5


Cutler-Voltz Goes The Distance

Henrico pitcher and second team all-district player Seth Cutler-Voltz pitched a complete game against Lee-Davis only allowing a single run.

"It was a good win and our defense played well," Cutler-Voltz said. "We scratched off three runs against a good team. In the finals against Hanover there will be a lot of emotion, a lot of hustle, both teams want it real bad."

The Warriors wasted no time getting on the score board.

Catcher Michael Mansfield drove in the first run of the game off his RBI single to put Henrico up 1-0 in the first inning.

Lee-Davis tied the game in the bottom of the third inning off of junior third baseman Andrew Hacker's RBI single that brought in senior first baseman Jordan Walton.

Henrico bounced right back regaining the lead in the top of the fourth inning.

Freshman third baseman Andrew Prop's RBI single brought in second baseman Dorsel Robinson to take a 2-1 lead.

Cutler-Voltz was solid the last four innings of the game not allowing another run to score.

Henrico's Adam Toombs RBI double in the top of the seventh drove in the final run of the game, bringing in Robinson to advance the Warriors to the finals.

Henrico    100 100 1 - 3
Lee-Davis 001 000 0 - 1
Cutler-Voltz and Mansfield; Boze and Musser
Records: Lee-Davis 13-7; Henrico 16-5