7/30/2006 – Staunton News Leader

Staunton News Leader Written By Al Samuels Sports Writer Staunton stages late rally; one victory from playing for title HARRISONBURG — The Staunton Braves continued their playoff magic Saturday night with a dramatic, 5-4, come-from-behind win over the Harrisonburg Turks in the first game of their Valley Baseball League best-of-three semifinal series. The Turks got a run in the seventh to grab a 4-3 lead. But in the Staunton eighth, Adam Kearney reached on a walk to open the inning and Chris Wilkins was hit by a pitch. Mike Mitchell bunted for a hit to load the bases with none out. Matt Hacker’s grounder to short tied the score at 4-4. After Wilkins was nailed at the plate on Tyler Brown’s grounder to first, shortstop Lanny Stanfield came up big with an RBI ground-rule double to left that scored Mitchell. Reliever David Torcise took care of the rest. He came on in the eighth to get the last out with Turks on first and third, and then mowed the 3-4-5 part of the Turks’ order in the ninth for the save. The Braves can wrap up a trip to the championship series tonight with a win over the Turks at Moxie Stadium. STAUNTON 201 000 020 — 5 12 1 HARRISONBURG 000 120 100 — 4 8 1 Bowman, McGahey (7), Svitak (8), Torcise (8) and Kearney. VanZant, Wells (7), Vallen (9) and Harrison. W — McGahey. L — Wells. SV — Torcise. HR — Robinson (H) 5th, one on.