Jones homers to lift Gap over Wilson

FISHERSVILLE — In the top of the seventh inning, with the score tied at four, Buffalo Gap’s Boone Jones wasted no time disposing of Wilson Memorial.

The Bison senior swung at the first pitch he saw, launching the ball far beyond the left-field fence to score the eventual game-winning run in Shenandoah District baseball action. The 5-4 win against the Green Hornets was the first district win for the Bison this season after a three-game losing skid.

“I just saw it coming in and I couldn’t resist,” Jones said.

Buffalo Gap held a four-run lead over the Green Hornets heading into the fifth inning and Bison starting pitcher Josh McDevitt was two innings away from pitching a no-hitter when Wilson’s Bryce Curd finally found a hole. Curd rifled a ball into the left-field gap, advancing Wally Andrus, who reached first on a walk. Andrus scored the Hornets’ first run on a wild pitch and Curd added a second mark on the board when McDevitt threw wild a second time.

McDevitt walked two more batters, with no outs, before Gap coach Chad Coffey pulled him from the mound, putting Ricky Clifton in his place.

“We played a game yesterday and I questioned our mental approach to the game,” Coffey said. “Today we came out prepared and our approach showed it. Pitcher is getting tired and that’s when they made their run.”

After Clifton struck out the first Hornets he faced, D.J. Curry hit a two-RBI double to knot the score. When Curry reached second, the Bison threw the ball home but the throw went wide and Curry tried to stretch his play to third, but Gap catcher Lance Hanger gunned him down as he overran the bag. Clifton struck out the next batter to get out of the inning.

Neither club scored in the sixth, but Jones made the most of his at-bat in the seventh, hitting his game-winning home run. Jones finished the day 3-for-4 with three RBI.

“We are very disciplined,” Jones said. “It’s going to take more than one inning to beat us and we take it to the limit every time.”

The Hornets almost got something going in the bottom of the inning, but Gap shortstop Sandridge stole a hit away from Curd with a leaping catch.

“They made two plays when they had to,” said Wilson coach Derek McDaniel. 

Gap’s Travis Ashby took the win, pitching the final two innings after Coffey pulled Clifton after one inning of work.

Despite his four earned runs in the fifth, McDevitt had a strong day on the mound, striking out nine while allowing only one hit.

“We hurt ourselves early. A lot of those were pitches in the dirt and out of the zone,” McDaniel said. “We were just really undisciplined at the plate. Give him credit, he’s throwing balls and we are swinging at them, he’s going to keep throwing them.”

The Bison scored their first run in the first inning, after Hunter Sandridge reached first on a single, stole second and was batted in by a Jones single.

“The team had been reeling the last few games,” Coffey said. “We went on a skid and dropped three games in a row; three of them where one big inning killed us. Today we scored enough runs so that didn’t happen.”

Ryan Sheridan scored the second Bison run on a Sandridge double in the third and Ashby and Jones both crossed the plate in the fifth. Ashby scored on a Jones double and a McDevitt single plated Jones.

Wilson’s Curry took the loss, pitching the distance while striking out two and allowing 10 hits.

Wilson (3-8, 1-2 Shenandoah) returns to the diamond on Monday, traveling to Stuarts Draft for a non-district game. Buffalo Gap (5-3, 1-2 Shenandoah) will take on Bath County today in a doubleheader.