Dimitt’s walk-off wins it for Draft

STUARTS DRAFT — Strikes came early and often as two staff aces dueled Tuesday night, but a grooved fastball proved the difference when Stuarts Draft third baseman Ricky Dimitt launched a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Waynesboro center fielder Terrell Thompson gave chase up the fence, but there was little doubt when the ball left Dimitt’s bat: he had done it again, driving his second home run of the season off Waynesboro’s left-handed ace Joseph Lucas.

It was his fifth of the season.

“I was confident against him, it was just one bad pitch,” Lucas said, echoing both teams’ head coaches after both starting pitchers went the distance in the 2-1 contest.

Lucas struck out 11, walked one, and allowed seven hits. Right-handed Stuarts Draft workhorse Jeremy Fitzgerald struck out 10 and walked three.

The hurlers worked ahead of most hitters and each pitched out of late-inning jams.

“The ballgame was in both of their hands,” Draft coach Joe Podgorski said. “Somebody had to lose this game … Both sides had their opportunities.”

A Fitzgerald triple in the first inning led to the game’s first run, but no combination of stolen bases and sacrifice bunts could push another across until the top of the sixth.

Draft threatened in the third after the Little Giants misplayed a bunt, but left two runners on.

Waynesboro got a leadoff man aboard in the fifth when Cougars left fielder David Gauldin couldn’t wrangle a line drive in the low-hanging sun, but Fitzgerald erased the runner with an athletic snag to start a double play.

Gauldin bounced back the next inning, triumphing over the sun to make a diving catch and keep the speedy Thompson off base. Fitzgerald walked one that inning before Waynesboro first basemen Tyler Briggs knocked a double, just fair, off the right-field fence.

Waynesboro catcher Kendall Wolfe erased two runners on attempted steals in the sixth and eighth.

Payne and Podgorski said their teams failed to execute fundamentals, such as bunting.

“We were trying everything … scratching’ and clawin’,” Payne said.

Lucas did not slow in the eighth, striking out two Cougars, but threw just three pitches to Dimitt in the ninth.

“My stuff was working,” Lucas said. “I wasn’t trying anything fancy.”

Nor was Dimitt. His home run cleared the Cougar bench.

“It was a rare moment: everybody was up,” Dimitt said afterward, the retrieved and dirty home run ball in his hands.

Fitzgerald beat Lucas in another complete-game battle in April, one of two Draft wins over Waynesboro in the regular season.

The Cougars travel to No. 1 seed Fort Defiance for the Southern Valley tournament championship Thursday. Both teams gained berths into the Region III tournament. Waynesboro battles R.E. Lee for a remaining regional spot.