Lindside – Hit hard by graduation last year, many outside the James Monroe baseball team balked at the possibility of the Mavericks repeating as Class A Region 3, Section 1 champions.
Thursday night after numerous delays due to the weather, James Monroe proved the naysayers wrong.
Scoring on a throwing error in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Mavericks topped Summers County 5-4 to repeat as sectional champions.
James Monroe will now play Charleston Catholic Monday in Game 1 of the best-of-3 regional tournament next week. Game 2 will be in Lindside Tuesday. If Game 3 is necessary, it  will be played back in Charleston.
“First, I have to give a shout to Summers County,” James Monroe head coach Tom Gardinier said. “Summers County is a wonderful program and they have a lot of really good baseball players. You could see it on their faces at the end of the game. It matters a lot and they put a lot into it.”
“People outside of the program didn’t know, but inside the program I knew we had something special,” Gardinier went on to say. “We showed it tonight. We were resilient. We took the lead and gave it back, but we didn’t give up. We pulled it out.”
Ben Lane manufactured a run in the first inning to stake Summers County to an early 1-0. Lane walked out of the lead-off position and promptly stole second. The senior catcher then scored as a result of two wild pitches.
In what became a theme for the game, when the Bobcats scored, James Monroe quickly had the answer.
Back-to-back walks to start the bottom of the first and an errant throw to third gave the Mavs runners at second and third with no outs.
A single from Peyton Gardinier sent both runners home for a 2-1 lead.
There was no further scoring until the fifth inning, but over that three inning span, the home team made some big plays to keep the Bobcats off the board.
Moving runners to second and third with one out in the third inning, a strikeout and a ground out kept Summers Count off the board. In the fourth, Robey Brown was cut down at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch.
Undaunted by the missed opportunities, Summers County evened the game in the fifth.
With runners on the corners, Brandan Isaac singled home John Williams for the 100th RBI of his career.
Unfortunately for the visitors, aggressive base running wiped out the go-ahead run when Lane attempted to score all the way first.
“Anytime we get (guys) that can really run, we are going to try and score,” Summers County head coach Stan Unroe said. “We are going to make the defense make a play. They made a nice relay. (Justin) Feamster made a nice throw to home plate. That is just good baseball. We forced them to make a play and they made it.”
Similar to the first frame, James Monroe answered immediately.
A walk to Hudson Boggess was sandwiched around singles from Bryce Neel and Cooper Ridgeway to load the bases.
Gardinier worked a walk to score the first run of the inning before a sacrifice fly from Kadyn Hines gave the Mavericks a 4-2 advantage.
Down to its last three outs in the top of the seventh, Summers County came up big with its season on the line.
A pair of one-out walks was followed by a ground ball from Lane to the shortstop. When the relay to first base for the possible double-play could not be handled, Colton Taylor scored, cutting the lead to 4-3.
Down one ball and two strikes in the count, Isaac ripped a double over the center fielder’s head, scoring Lane to tie the game at 4-4.
“We got behind and we battled back. The two seniors (Lane and Isaac) we have are unbelievable and we are going to miss those two a bunch,” Unroe said. “They came through to help us tie the game. Those two kids are bulldogs. They are all-staters and they did what they are supposed to tonight. We just came up a little short.”
The Bobcats extended the game to extra innings, but could not score in the eighth.
James Monroe seized the opportunity to grab the win in the home half.
Kaden Lowe reached on a bang-bang play at first before Feamster followed with a single to move Lowe up a base.
Gardinier then substituted Baylee Ridgeway in as a pinch-hitter for the obvious bunt situation.
“Baylee going in there batting left-handed. He hadn’t batted left-handed all season,” Gardinier said. “He told me after the game that he had been working on that. Had I known he was going to do that, I would have had second thoughts. That was all on him.”
With Lowe moving on the pitch, Ridgeway’s bunt attempt set the game winning sequence in motion.
“We wanted to see if the third baseman was crashing. If the shortstop didn’t get there in time, they were giving us a base,” Gardinier said. “We wanted to put some pressure on the defense and see what would happen. These are still high school kids and high school kids make mistakes.”
When Ridgeway pulled back, the throw to third was low and bounced into left field, allowing Lowe to score the game winner.
“We have been punched in the mouth a lot this season. They battle and they don’t let one mistake or one event lead to something else,” Gardinier said. “This group has been resilient in the fact that they make one mistake and then they hold it there. That is all on our senior leadership.”
Unroe had high praise for the Mavericks after the win.
“You have to give James Monroe some credit. That is one heck of a baseball team,” Unroe said. “Fundamentally, they do everything right. Their pitchers throw strikes and they catch the ball. if you do that, you will have a chance to win every game.”
Now the Mavericks will have the biggest test of the season, trying to break the Region 3 dominance of the Irish.
“I am excited to see Charleston Catholic,” Gardinier said. “I know they are a good program and a good team. It is going to be a big challenge for us, but I think these boys will be ready for it.”
