Written By Bennett Conlin
Broadcasting Intern

Purcellville, VA –   Coming into their matchup with the Purcellville Cannons, the Harrisonburg Turks had been red hot. The team’s pitching, hitting and fielding had all been clicking. Outside of the fourth inning in Tuesday night’s contest, the Turks continued their hot play and outscored the Cannons 4-1. Unfortunately for the Turks, you can’t erase an inning.

Purcellville exploded for six runs in the bottom of the fourth and never relinquished that lead en route to a 7-5 victory over Harrisonburg. The win moves the Cannons to 13-7 and improves their North division lead to two games, while the Turks drop to 9-12 overall, which is 5.5 games behind Charlottesville in the South.

The Cannons were firing in the fourth as they used eight hits and one costly Turks error to open up a 7-3 lead. After Harrisonburg’s second baseman Bryan Arias juggled a hard-hit grounder to second, the bases were loaded and the Cannons cashed in. After Turks starter Matt Young, in his first action of the summer, plunked Raul Cabrera to score a run, the Cannons tallied three straight singles to bust the game open.

The singles weren’t rocketed shots, but the Cannons offense did a phenomenal job of putting balls in play and avoiding the Turks’ speedy outfielders.

Despite falling behind 7-3, the Turks rallied late and used an eighth inning, two-run double from Brendon Venter to cut the deficit to 7-5. Harrisonburg brought the winning run to the plate after Beam walked, but Joe Lytle’s bunt attempt was popped up to first base and caught. The Cannons retired Andrew Llewellyn and Tevin Mitchell to retire the side. The Turks were unable to push any runs across in the ninth to keep the game alive.

On the bright side, Venter homered and tallied three RBIs on the night. JMU product Eric Yankey also shined in relief as he threw three shutout innings, while allowing just one hit and striking out four.

Up next, the Turks return home to host the Waynesboro Generals on Wednesday night. First pitch is set for 7:30 p.m. If you can’t make it to the game, head to HarrisonburgTurks.com and click on “Listen Live” to hear the live webcast. Dave Norman and Bennett Conlin will be on the call.