Hornets upset the Bison

HARRISONBURG — All along Wilson Memorial coach Derek McDaniel knew his team could win and on Monday night it showed.
Wilson pitcher Alex Fisher allowed only one Buffalo Gap hit in the Shenandoah District semifinals to lead the Green Hornets to a 1-0 win and a Region B tournament berth.
“You throw strikes, get ahead and play good defense, that’s the secret of baseball,” McDaniel said. “Well, it’s not a secret but that’s how it is played.”
Fisher held a no-hitter together until the fifth inning when Boone Jones ripped one into the gap. After the game McDaniel said little about his own coaching efforts but credited Fisher and assistant coach Rodney Cullen, who calls the pitches from the dugout, with the win.
“He calls all the pitches,” McDaniel said. “He had rhythm tonight. I looked at Rodney and he was calling pitches like he was on the mound tonight.”
“When you have a pitcher that’s throwing strikes with all three of his pitches it makes my job easy. He did all the work,” Cullen responded.
Early on Wilson took its one-run advantage when D.J. Curry lifted a ball over the left-field fence in the first inning. His solo blast was all the Green Hornets needed to pick up the win.
“This is a great opportunity to go to regionals and play in the championship,” Fisher said. “It’s not just me, we all did it.”
In the bottom of the seventh Buffalo Gap nearly tied up the game and sent it into extra innings, taking advantage of Wilson’s lone error.
Fisher fanned Boone Jones, but a dropped third strike allowed the Bison junior to reach first. When Wilson catcher David Gauldin tried to make the throw to first, the ball flew high, allowing Jones to advance to second.
An Austin Bowers grounder put Jones on third with two outs and J. R. Hart was at the plate. Fisher put two strikes on Hart when the Bison tried a desperation move.
On the 1-2 pitch Jones took off for home. Gauldin made up for his earlier error, digging the ball out of the dirt just in time to lay the tag down on Jones.
Fisher, who catches when he’s not on the mound, said he wasn’t going allow Jones to tie it.
“That same thing happened to me against Stonewall except the kid scored and I wasn’t going to let it happen again,” Fisher said.
No. 1 Luray won the regular season Shenandoah District and beat Page County on Monday to advance to the tournament finals. As a result the Green Hornets will automatically earn the district’s No. 2 region seed.
Other than Jones only one other Bison player reached first base. Travis Ashby drew Fisher’s only three walks in his three plate appearances.
Buffalo Gap’s Hart took the loss for the Bison, pitching five strikeouts, no walks and five hits. Josh Wenger relieved Hart in the fifth inning and struck out four and allowed no hits.
The Shenandoah tournament will conclude on Wednesday, when Luray and Wilson square off at 6 p.m. for the trophy.