STATE EXTRA SISK: The story goes full circle

The sun set in left field at Baltimore Park in Powhatan one-year ago today while Waynesboro celebrated in the dugout.
“How many miracles do you want?” Waynesboro coach Jim Critzer asked.
The Little Giants had just knocked off the Indians in a 2-1 thriller that walked a thin line of infringing on the copyright of a Disney movie.
Waynesboro’s Jake Peeling and Powhatan’s Jesse Reid battled on the mound, a ticket to Pulaski waiting for the victor. The Indians took the early 1-0 lead after Derek Hall dropped a fly ball in the outfield. A year later Hall still shakes his head when he remembers it.
“I didn’t want us to lose because of me,” he said.
In the dugout, Waynesboro slugger Jay Thompson told the Little Giant outfielder to shake it off.
“He lifted me up,” Hall said.
Innings went by and the score stayed 1-0; Critzer watched the Giants’ season came closer to ending with every out.
“This is the honest truth,” the coach said Thursday. “I stood in the third-base coaches’ box and looked up and said, ‘Lord don’t let it end this way.’ “
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Waynesboro found a spark. With the bases loaded the Indians’ Paul Nice hit a grounder to James Lucas at third. Lucas threw home to catcher Jeremy Lundstrom who tagged the plate for a force then rocketed the ball to first. The runner was out of the baseline and was struck by the ball, giving the Little Giants a much needed double play.
The next inning, Lucas scored on an Indians’ error.
Thompson stood on second and watched a Peeling grounder to the shortstop. Powhatan made the throw to first, but it was late. The Indians’ first baseman stalled just enough.
“I remember when Jay was rounding third,” Josh Craig said.
“I wasn’t looking and I wasn’t stopping,” Thompson said. “I was going all the way.”
Thompson slid headfirst into home with an outstretched hand scraping the plate under the catcher’s glove. Critzer remember the play vividly.
“He slid with his body away,” he said. “The catcher was on the right-field side of the plate and Jay went to the left. It was smart.”
Today the Indians and Little Giants square off again, with most of last year’s players back, in an epilogue of 2007’s storybook ending for the Giants.
“I picked them as the dark horse at the start of the season,” Critzer said.
Call it fate, destiny or even bad luck that Waynesboro would run into the same team that it ousted from the 2007 Group AA tournament.
“They should be looking for some revenge,” Jeremy Hahn said.