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BRISTOL, Va. — Those expecting another John Battle beatdown on Monday left Battle Hill rather surprised, but the powerful Trojans took care of business nonetheless and opened the Mountain 7 District baseball tournament with a 4-0 win over the Lee Generals.
Battle had blasted Lee in runaway fashion — 14-4 and 21-3 — during the regular season, but this time it was a different scene on a day when a light drizzle fell throughout most of the game.
The second-seeded Trojans (16-5) pieced together enough offense to beat left-hander Virgil Hobbs, but the sophomore effectively shut down Battle’s high-octane bats.
Hobbs pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up four earned runs on just four base hits, including a bunt single and an infield single. He allowed no extra-base knocks.
If Lee coach Randy Cox had known that his seventh-seeded club would allow just four runs, the third-year mentor would have taken his chances against the defending state runner-up.
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“Oh yeah, definitely,” Cox said. “But I got a good effort from my lefty there, a real good effort. That’s the best he’s thrown all year and that’s what we need him to do.”
Battle coach Jimmy Gobble tipped his hat.
“Their lefty pitched well,” Gobble said. “It was a wet, nasty game and our approaches weren’t that bad, but that’s a good team there. They can play and I’ve been saying that for a while.”
Fortunately for Gobble, he has enough pitching to hold up when only scoring four runs.
Keeping an eye on the pitch count, the sixth-year boss almost evenly split the workload of his starter, Porter Gobble, and reliever Evan Hankins to get the job done.
Gobble covered the first 3 1/3 innings to get the win and Hankins pitched the final three frames to pick up a save. Caleb Lockhart bridged the gap with 2/3 of an inning in the fourth.
No-hit over the first three innings, the Generals (9-12) managed three late-game singles but were never able to get a baserunner past second base.
“Defensively we did alright [one error] and I didn’t mind the pitching,” Jimmy Gobble said. “So we got some deep counts, a lot of 3-2s and 2-2s, and we’ve got to stay away from that. And some early 2-0 counts that I hate — gotta stay away from that. But otherwise, it was OK.
“Porter and Evan are no different from one to the other. I like Evan on the mound and I like Porter on the mound, but they’re still very young [both sophomores] and they haven’t yet figured out how to control that 100-pitch window. We get them to control that and we’re fine, but they’re just not there yet. But you have them in a 50-pitch setting, they’re pretty darn good.
“And Noah Sills is still Noah Sills,” the coach added. “You hand him the ball and he just goes.”
Battle scored twice in the third inning, Hankins plating one run with a fielder’s choice grounder and Elijah Childress getting the other RBI on a bases-loaded, catcher’s interference call. A line-drive single by Jackson Gayle and a bunt single from Gobble fueled the spurt.
The Trojans added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings on a Hobbs wild pitch and another fielder’s choice grounder, this one off the bat of Broadie Bailey.
The manufacturing effort was enough to push the Trojans on to today’s 5 p.m. semifinal against third-seeded Wise Central, a game to be played at Abingdon’s Falcon Park.
Meanwhile, Lee is in an odd situation and still alive despite the defeat.
The Generals, Gate City and Ridgeview all tied for fifth in the league with 3-9 district records and all three lost their tournament opener. And because the M7 will send four teams to the Region 2D tournament, the threesome will have a little playoff of their own while Battle, top-seeded Abingdon, Central and fourth-seeded Union compete in the district semifinals today.
In a blind draw, Ridgeview gained the fifth seed and the bye that goes with it for this special playoff, while Gate City gained the sixth seed for its game against Lee.
The Generals will face Gate City today at Abingdon at 2 p.m., with the winner advancing to play Ridgeview on another day. The survivor of this two-game set will earn a spot in next week’s regional field.
“I guess now we’ll get in a playoff to see who’s fourth,” Cox said. “I told the guys if the rest of you pitchers throw like he [Hobbs] did out here today, we won’t have to worry about any of that.”
Bailey and Landon Odum managed Battle’s other two hits, while Hobbs, Luke Mullins and Caleb Leonard produced Lee’s base knocks.
Gobble struck out five batters and Hankins fanned six. Battle hitters only whiffed twice.
