Fort Chiswell loses heartbreaker to Grayson County

By PAM MCGUIRE/Correspondent

After winning the opening round of the Coppinger Tournament in dramatic fashion, the Fort Chiswell varsity baseball team dropped its next two tourney games to AA Tazewell 13-1 and Oak Hill, W.Va., 8-2 before returning to Mountain Empire District competition.
The Grayson County Blue Devils had no plans to make the return a smooth one as they were out for revenge after going 1 for 2 in the Coppinger as well.
The two teams met on April 24 to basically decide who was going to be standing at the top of the MED at the end of the day.  The Devils won the first bout 1-0 without even gathering a hit and the FC only managed to scrap three knocks.  This meeting proved to be much different as the Pioneers got seven hits and the Devil smacked out nine for the game as both offenses were turning on all cylinders.
But the outcome turned out to be similar to the teams’ first meeting with Grayson County defeating Fort Chiswell in another heartbreaker by the score of 7-6.
FC started things off in the first as Cody Poole reached base on a single and Hody Viars received a free pass to first advancing Poole to second.  Poole later scored on a Tyler Akers’ ground ball to give the Pioneers an early 1-0 lead after one-half inning of play.
The Devils were retired by starting pitcher Blake Musick on three strikeouts after he gave up two walks in the bottom half of the inning.
In the bottom of the second, the Pioneers continued to roll as Mark Galimore led off with a single, Musick reached on a free pass and Michael Dunford smacked a single to load the bases for Parker Mabe.  The junior right field plated both runs on a line shot to right-center field to make the score 3-0 in favor of the Fort.
In the bottom of the second, Musick retired Brett Graham on a ground ball and walked Joe Pugh before striking out the side to keep the score at 3-0.
The Pioneers continued to stay hot in the third as Jake Underwood reached first on a walk and was eventually plated by a Mark Galimore single.  The hit would give FC its largest lead of the game at 4-0, but it would not last as the Devils would break the ice in the bottom of the third as they scored two runs of their own via a walk, a Brett Graham hit, and a couple of Pioneer errors to close the FC advantage to 4-2 after three.
Both teams went cold in the fourth as they were issued walks and scattered out hits but in the end neither team could manage to score a run.
In the top of the fifth, Mark Galimore reached on a single but was eventually left stranded after two Pioneer strikeouts.
Grayson County broke it open in the bottom of the fifth as it scored three runs on four hits by Brett Graham, Zack Hill, John Osborne, and Jeff Sells to take a 5-4 lead.
In the top of the sixth inning the Pioneers would suffer a string of bad luck as Parker Mabe reached on a walk and Hody Viars and Drew White were both retired on balls that were caught right in front of the 365 sign in left-center field.
The Devils would add to this misfortune by scoring two more runs in the 6th to make the score 7-4.
FC was determined not to give up in the 7th as Tyler Akers and Jacob Underwood both reached on free passes.  They would both later score on RBIs by Musick and Dunford before the Pioneers would run out of gas.
The Pioneers were led by Mark Galimore as he went 3 for 4 on the day.  Cody Poole also picked up two hits for FC.  Blake Musick is also to be commended for his four and two-thirds innings of work on the mound as he stuck out six Blue Devils and only surrendered three hits for the game.