HARRISONBURG – Culpeper took the lead with four runs in the fourth inning Thursday at Veterans Memorial Park and held off the Harrisonburg Turks in the opening round of the South Division playoffs.
Culpeper advances to meet Charlottesville in a best-of-3 series beginning Friday evening at the Tom Sox home park. The loss ends Harrisonburg’s season.
The Turks loaded the bases in the bottom of the third inning and got on the board first on a groundout by Jack Cannizzaro (JMU).
Culpeper answered with four runs in the top of the fifth inning and held the lead the rest of the way. Christian Reyna (Messiah) led off the inning with a walk and scored on a double by Blagen Pado (Longwood) to tie the score. Pado moved to third on a single by Kazuya Jordan (VMI) and then scored on a base hit by Jon Howard (Mt. Olive), giving the Cavs a 2-1 lead. Jordan scored on a single by Bryce Demory (Lynchburg) and a groundout by Gabriel Larry (Mississippi) scored Howard for a 4-1 Culpeper lead.
The top of the order did most of the damage for the Cavs as the first four hitters in the lineup combined to go 10-for-20 at the plate. Pado was 3-for-6 with three runs scored and a pair of RBIs. Jordan went 3-for-5, scored a run and drove in a run. Howard was 2-for-4 with a run scored and a run batted in while Demory finished 2-for-5 with one run batted in.
Jackson Rusiecki (North Carolina) also had two hits, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. Culpeper finished the contest with 14 hits.
Bailey Peek (Ferrum) was the winning pitcher, working three scoreless innings while allowing just one hit. He struck out three and walked three.
The Turks were held to just four hits in the game. Harrisonburg ends its season with a 22-18 overall record.