By Jack Fitzpatrick
Broadcasting Intern
CHARLOTTESVILLE–The Harrisonburg Turks (5-4) travelled to Charlottesville (7-2) to take on the defending Valley Baseball League Champions, the TomSox. The Turks struggled all night to consistently find the strike zone and that was their undoing as they fell 11-4, in their first of 6 meetings with Charlottesville.
In total the Turks used six different pitchers. Joseph Mannelly (Georgia Tech, Sophomore) earned the start and he came out and pitched a solid 3 innings but struggled with command in the fourth inning where he eventually was pulled.
Turks pitcher allowed 12 walks to only seven strikeouts. The bottom of the third was where the most damage was done, the Turks allowed 6 runs on just three hits.
There was plenty of uncharacteristic play tonight from some solid players on the Turks team. Daniel Brandon (Longwood, Sophomore), normally a strikeout machine, came in and allowed four runs, four hits and walked two as well with no strikeouts.
Zach Little (Wingate, Senior) was at third tonight, where he has seen success all season, however he too made an uncharacteristic play in the seventh with a throwing error to first which allowed Charlottesville to tack on two more insurance runs.
All of the scoring for the Turks came in the 5th on 2 hits and a few TomSox miscues. All night they struggled to string hits together and to move runners over. The Turks managed just three hits in the game paced by Austin Embler (UNC-Greensboro) with 2 hits and and 2 RBI double
Kyle Nicolas’s got the start for Charlottesville and was charged with the four runs before yielding to Cameron Weinberger and Antonio Menendez. That duo combined for 4.2 innings pitched, did not allow a single hit and only saw two base runners in those final innings. Eastern Florida College teammates Paul Castillo and Elian Merejo of the Turks faced off against Weinberger. Weinberger got the better of the his teammates.
Overall the Turks couldn’t get out of their own way. Giving the TomSox 12 free base runners and pushing home several runs for Charlottesville because of walks with the bases loaded.
The winning pitcher for the TomSox was Cameron Weinberger (2-0) and Mannelly was the losing pitcher dropping his record to 1-1 through two starts.
The Turks look to avenge their back-to-back loses tomorrow night as they take on the Staunton Braves at Veterans Memorial Park for the second time this season.
Friday night will be Chick-Fil-A night and MedExpress Family Fun night meaning the first 100 fans will receive a free Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich and there will be games and activities for children from 7-8pm