8/3/05 – Daily News Record
By DUSTIN DOPIRAK Daily News-Record COVINGTON — Ordinarily, the idea of seeing Harrisonburg Turks closer Chris Fessler warming up on the mound in the ninth inning to the blaring guitars of Metallica’s "Enter Sandman" would be enough to make Valley League hitters’ legs quiver. After all, what’s more intimidating than a flame-throwing closer and self-described metalhead getting juiced up to one of his all-time favorite songs? But Fessler didn’t look quite as fearsome going into the bottom of the ninth Tuesday night. He and the Turks had already blown a 6-2 lead by giving up four runs in the eighth inning, and from there, things just got worse. The Valley League’s saves leader walked two batters and hit one after a strikeout to load the bases. After that, left-hander Shawn Benson came in and hit Covington third baseman Devery Van De Keere, allowing shortstop Trey Sutton to score the winning run and give the Lumberjacks a 7-6 victory and a 1-0 lead in the Southern Division championship series in front of 373 fans at Covington’s Casey Field. "He just couldn’t throw strikes," Turks manager Bob Wease said of Fessler, who threw eight of his first 10 pitches in the ninth for balls. Game 2 of the best-of-three series is at 7:30 p.m. today at Memorial Stadium. Harrisonburg pitcher Matt Baugh will face Covington’s Mike Sanders. Wease complained to umpires that Van De Keere had thrown his arm in front of Benson’s pitch to take the hit. Van DeKeere said he would never think of doing that, and seemed slightly disappointed that he didn’t end the game in more dramatic fashion. "I would have rather been under a dog pile after a grand slam home run," Van De Keere said. "But this is fine." Harrisonburg starter Stephen Ochs pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up just four hits and two unearned runs. Harrisonburg 000 300 030 ? 6 7 3 Covington 000 011 041 ? 7 9 1 Ochs, Dawson (6), Fessler (8), Benson (9) and Martinez; Gunter, Revellette (8) and Marquez. WP-Revellette (4-2). LP-Fessler (0-3)