Pioneers punish Bears in baseball opener

By JERRY SCOTT/Staff

It may have been April 1 but Fort Chiswell didn’t fool around when it came to playing Bland County’s Bears on their home turf for their MED baseball opener for 2008. If the Pioneers had have had a woodshed out back of their dugout, they couldn’t have given the Bears a worse whipping that the 18-0 shelling that took place.
Blake Musick flirted with a perfect game before eventually combining with Zach Cook on a one-hitter as the Pioneers improved to 6-1 overall and 1-0 in the MED. Musick also helped himself at the bat as he stroked a 3-run homer en route to driving in three runs. Teammate Tyler Akers added a double and single to drive in four Fort Chiswell runs.
Fort Chiswell managed only seven hits, taking advantage of numerous fielding miscues, both physically and mentally, by the Bears. Six walks and three hit batters by three Bland County (0-1, 2-3) made matters much worse.
The Pioneers batted around twice in the game, scoring five runs in three different innings. They led 3-0 after one frame and were never challenged. Those runs came without the benefit of a hit, a sign of things to come the entire afternoon. Three walks and two Bland County errors led to the runs.
Musick retired the first nine batters he faced before Bland County’s Jacob Lambert coaxed a walk to ruin Musick’s bid for perfection. Cody Blessing then reached on a Hody Viars error and Josh Pennington singled to load the bases. That would be the only baserunners the Bears could get on all game and Musick aborted that scoring attempt by striking out Eric Harless before getting Dakotah Crouse to pop out to Mike Taylor and Nathan Cox to ground out second-to-first.
Cook came on to pitch a three up, three down fifth, striking out two and sending the Bears to their third straight loss after two wins to open the season. Musick struck out five and Cook two.
Fort Chiswell expanded on their 3-0 first inning lead by scoring five runs in the second inning, five in the third, and five more in the fourth. Josh McNeil drove home runs in the second and fourth on flyouts, Mark Galimore was hit with a pitch with the bases loaded in the third and Akers had a two-run single in the second and a two-run double in the third.
Leading 13-0 entering the fourth, the Pioneers sealed the win by sending eight batters to the plate while scoring their final five runs. Jordan Poole led the inning off with a triple and was quickly plated on a single from Jason Dunford. A steal, passed ball, and McNeil’s flyout pushed the tally to 15-0.
Jake Underwood and Galimore then singled and Musick followed with his blast that put the finishing touches on Fort Chiswell’s offensive effort. Fort Chiswell’s 18 runs were the fourth most scored against a Bears’ team since the program was fielded in 2003.
Jacob Mercer was one of the few bright spots for the Bears. The senior right fielder recorded four putouts and added an outfield assist for the Bears.

BLAND COUNTY (0-1, 2-3)
Name ab r h rbi
Lambert c,ss,p 1 0 0 0
Blessing p,c 2 0 0 0
Pennington lf 2 0 1 0
Harless 1b 2 0 0 0
Crouse cf 2 0 0 0
Cox 2b 2 0 0 0
Blankenship 3b,p 1 0 0 0
Blevins ph 1 0 0 0
Mercer rf 1 0 0 0
Leftwich ph 1 0 0 0
Agee ss,3b 1 0 0 0
Taylor ph 1 0 0 0
17 0 1 0

FORT CHISWELL (1-0, 6-1)
Name ab r h rbi
McNeil ss 1 2 0 2
Underwood c 2 3 1 0
Galimore 1b 1 3 1 1
Musick p 4 4 1 3
Cook p 0 0 0 0
Viars 2b 2 1 0 1
Akers 3b 4 0 2 4
White lf 3 0 0 0
Taylor rf 0 2 0 0
Poole ph, rf 1 1 1 0
Dunford cf 1 2 1 1
19 18 7 12

Bland County 000 00—0
Fort Chiswell 355 5x—18

Errors—Lambert (3), Pennington, Cox, Viars. LOB—BC 3, FtC 3. 2B—Akers, 3B—Poole. HR—Musick. SB—Musick, Viars, Akers, Dunford (2). SF—McNeil (2), Viars.

PITCHING—
Bland County ip r h bb k
Blessing (L 0-1) 1.0 5 0 4 0
Blankenship 2.0 8 2 2 1
Lambert 1.0 5 5 0 0
Fort Chiswell
Musick (W) 4.0 0 1 1 5
Cook 1.0 0 0 0 2

WP—Blankenship. PB—Blessing. HBP—by Blessing (Taylor), by Blankenship (Underwood, Galimore)