VALLEY LEAGUE: Underdog Haymarket grabs Game 1 from Staunton

STAUNTON — Seventh-seeded and heavy underdog Haymarket proved that games aren’t won on paper, knocking off the two seed Staunton, 14-5 Sunday night at John Moxie Memorial Stadium thanks to a 3-run blast from Tom La Stella in the ninth inning.

Pitching and defense wins games.

Haymarket did both Sunday night.

The first inning was a sign of things to come in the night ahead.

Chris Clinton led off for the Braves, popping up the ball on the infield.

Zeth Stone ran in on the grass and dove for the ball, coming up with the first out of the game.

With the way the Senators were pitching, a big inning off of Staunton ace Aaron Swenson could decide the outcome of the game no matter how early or late it comes during the contest.

Down 2-0 heading into the fourth inning, the Haymarket bats came alive, batting around against Swenson.

“Swenson didn’t have his best stuff tonight,” Staunton coach Lance Mauck said. “We didn’t field the ball well. The only good news is that there are two more games.”

Michael Lang, Stone, and Greg Hopkins singled in three straight at-bats to start the inning with Hopkins driving in Lang.

Hopkins single was the most interesting moment of the inning.

An easy pop-up, John Dishon watched the ball drop, assuming it was going foul.

Once the defense realized what was going on, Lang was home.

After Dishon dove for the next out on a similar ball, Scott Van Dusseldorp singled up the middle to tie the game.

An Andrew Lawrence single and Dan Perrine double later and the Senators were up 4-2.

Once the Senators picked up one more run in the fifth, Staunton closed the gap.

Mark Kuzma and Mark Andrews loaded the bases before the runs started coming in.

Coach Mauck utilized the hit and run philosophy to score some runs against the Senator ‘pen.

On back-to-back plays by Anthony Mesa and Anthony Porter, the ball was pushed through the opposite side, driving in a run, while sending the runners from first to third both times.

The only difference was that the ball was hit on opposite sides of the field.

Haymarket added a run in the seventh and pulled away for good in the eighth against two of the top pitchers Staunton had in the bullpen.

Michael Demma leadoff single went off the pitcher’s glove and up the middle.

Jim Vahalik smacked a ground ball to Donovan Huffer who threw to second.

The throw went into right field allowing Demma to go to third.

With no one covering second, Vahalik, being heads up, outran the fielders in blue to the second base bag.

“You have to take advantage of plays like that when you see them,” Haymarket coach Ryan Fecteau said. “Our guys did a good job of taking advantage of those opportunities when [Staunton] had a lapse.”

Even Noell singled home Demma for a two run lead.

After a walk by Donald Howell to leadoff hitter Lang, the bases were full of Senators with no outs.

Haymarket went on to score five runs in the eighth on four errors to steal game one from the mouth of the Bravos.