Blue Sox explode, stave off elimination

STUARTS DRAFT – After watching the on-the-ropes Blue Sox tee off on him, Stuarts Draft starter Drew Dobbins was ready to go to his weapon of last resort.

“I was about to switch around the throw right handed,” the southpaw joked.

In Elkton’s five-run third inning, Dobbins’ defense also let him down, committing three errors in that fateful top half as the Blue Sox beat the Diamondbacks 10-4 Sunday, and cutting Draft’s lead in the best-of-five series to 2-1. Clover Hill awaits the winner of this series for the Rockingham County Baseball League championship.

“I would have liked to definitely close it out tonight,” said D’backs manager Tinker Kiser.

Instead, the Draft squad will have to head back to Elkton tonight for Game 4. When the smoke cleared after Elkton’s big third inning, that fact was very evident to the home crowd.

The big blow came off the bat of Elkton’s Erik Dvergsten, who ripped a two-run shot over the fence in right, staking the Blue Sox a 5-0 lead. His blast capped three straight run-scoring hits by Elkton, following back-to-back doubles by J.J. Loker and Beau Banglesdorf.

“I got lit up,” Dobbins said. “I don’t know what else to say.”

Elkton starter Scott Honaker made sure the Draft bats didn’t make too much noise. While not overpowering, Honaker got six groundball outs and struck out three Draft batters. It was an about-face for the Blue Sox, a team that got outscored 26-1 in the series’ first two games.

“It was all about my defense,” Honaker said. “If you looked out there you saw guys chasing them down in the outfield, diving around and making the play.”

Draft scored a run on a throwing error in the fourth and pushed single runs over the plate in the final three innings, with Wes Dimitt providing the only real firepower of the night from the Draft bats. His solo shot to right in the eighth made it 10-3.

“We got them at home now,” Honaker said. “We’ve been a little down as far as our bats go, but we showed today we can hit the ball and hit it hard.”

Kiser said he hoped his usually strong defensive team got all the errors out of their system.

“That’s baseball,” he said. “It usually evens out in the end.”

NOTES: Stuart Draft’s Ryan Cooper was named the league’s Most Valuable Player and teammate Jay Thompson was named the Rookie of the Year. … Cooper also won the RCBL’s Web poll for MVP, finishing 46 votes ahead of Montezuma’s Alex Foltz in the unofficial tally. Foltz was named the league’s top pitcher. … The Diamondbacks tied their highest 50/50 raffle amount for the year with $64 going to a fan.