Written by Brien Krug
Turks Staff Writer
June 12, 2021
The Turks returned from their short 2 day rain induced hiatus on Saturday 6/12 to host the 2019 Valley League Champions, the Charlottesville Tom Sox from Eagle Field at Veterans Memorial Park. Liam McDonnell (1-0, 0.00 ERA) got his second start tonight for Bob Wease’s Turks up against Charlottesville’s Trace Bright (0-0, 4.50 ERA).
McDonnell got off to a solid start only surrendering a walk in his 1st inning of work. The Turks had the chance to get an early lead after loading the bases but failed to bring in the opening run. Gehrig Ebel would get the Sox started in the 2nd with a lead off single which he would then follow up with two stolen bases and was finally brought in on a fielder’s choice ground ball from DH Ryan Dyal to give Charlottesville the lead.
After Harrisonburg went silently in the bottom of the 2nd, Charlottesville would add to their lead in the 3rd. The Sox would put together 3 one out hits in a row to extend their lead to 3-0. The Turks would fail to respond in innings 3 and 4, leading to the top of the 5th where Charlottesville would take advantage of a lead off double from Trevor Candelaria to make it a 4-0 lead for the Sox.
Derek Crum would get the 5th inning started for Harrisonburg with a 5 pitch walk. After an error on the Tom Sox first baseman, pinch hitter Austin Mueller would get the scoring started with an RBI single to left center. Connor Hartigan would then tie the game at 4 when he took the 3rd pitch of the at-bat over the left field wall for a 3 run home run.
At the beginning of the 6th Andres Rodriguez would replace McDonnell ending his night with a line of, 5.0 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K. Rodriguez would strike out the first 2 hitters of the inning before a walk and dropped 3rd strike would start a 2 out rally for Charlottesville. A double from Ryan Dyal and a from Alex Urban would lead to 3 unearned runs giving the Sox the lead back at 7-4.
The Turks would then get runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out in the home half but once again come up short. The inability to get clutch hits with runners in scoring position really hurt the Turks who went 2-10 with runners in scoring position. The Tom Sox would score another unearned run in the 7th after a RBI single from Gehrig Ebel brought around Matt Corpas, who reached on an error.
However, Harrisonburg would respond with some two out magic. The Turks would get 3 walks and 1 single but only score 1 run and leave the bases loaded. William Carter would enter in the 8th for Rodriguez ending his day with a line of: 2.0 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K. Carter would pitch 2 hitless innings keeping the Turks in the game, however Harrisonburg would get set down 1-2-3 in both the 8th and 9th innings to end the game.
The Turks (2-1) will look to bounce back tomorrow when they face off against the Woodstock River Bandits (3-2) in a Sunday double header starting at 5:30 PM in Woodstock, Va at Central High School.