Generals keep Rapids winless

LEXINGTON—Waynesboro kept Rockbridge from picking up its first win as a team in the Valley League as every starter had a hit in the 16-8 win Wednesday night at Cap’n Dick Smith Field.

The game could have been called after the first inning.

The Generals got all the support they needed, plating eight runs on seven hits in the first inning.

Rockbridge starting pitcher Charlie McCann collected just one out through the first eight batters before his Valley League debut was cut short.

Alex McClure and Casey McElroy got the game started with a walk and a double after McCann started the game with five straight balls.

Tony Caldwell grounded out to second, plating McClure.

The next five batters, Rob Kral, Chris Enourato, Rhett Stafford, Ryan Mathews and Austin Smith collected hits, chasing three runs across the plate while all five eventually scored.

After McClure picked up an RBI on a sacrifice fly, Caldwell drove in his second RBI of the inning in as many at bats. Before the inning ended 13 batters had come to the plate.

“We scored ten more runs than we scored in three games,” Waynesboro coach Andy Chalot said. “We swung the bats well. We switched the order around a little bit, but most importantly we talked about our approach before the game, looking to go up the middle and we did that.”

The second inning was not much kinder to the Rapids as Enourato walked to lead off the inning.

Reliever Hunter Daniel was taken out after the walk, recording only two outs.

Combined with McCann, both pitchers recorded a full inning of outs.

George Hebert came in to relieve the Rapids.

With Enourato on first base, Stafford teed off on a pitch, sending it deep to left-center field for a monster home run that measured well over 400 feet.

“We had a much better approach at the plate than we had been having,” Chalot stated. “We stressed it a lot more in BP that we have to use our top hand more with a wood bat. We had one of our better BP’s today and I expected something like this.”

Following the long bomb, Hebert settled in striking out two of the next three.

Rockbridge picked up one run in the bottom of the second, but easily could have had more.

Joe Witkowski led off with a double, followed up with an Enourato error that allowed Graham Sullivan to reach first with Witkowski reaching third.

Michael Cheatham chopped a high ground ball down the third base line that Enourato stabbed and threw to first to get the first out.

Witkowski scored, but Sullivan quit running on his way to second. First baseman Matthews chased Sullivan to second base, tagging him out just before they reached the bag for an unorthodox double play to suck what little momentum Rockbridge had out of the game.

The Rapids rallied in the bottom of the six for six runs on seven hits to make it close against the Waynesboro bullpen with a tremendous game of small ball, stealing bases and utilizing a hit-and-run technique.

Waynesboro made sure that the Rapids could only get back so much in this game by putting a crooked five on the scoreboard right after Rockbridge put up six in the inning prior.

Mike Hernandez (1-0) pitched 6 and 2/3 innings to get the win giving up five runs on seven hits while striking out three and walking one.

McClure went 2-for-4 while Stafford added two more hits including a homerun.

Kral went 3-for-5 with three doubles.