GW Maroons win dramatic game over Patrick Henry

By Jim Cunningham
Published: May 6, 2009

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The George Wythe Maroons traveled to Glade Spring Thursday night and defeated the Patrick Henry Rebels 7-6 in a nine inning Hogoheegee District baseball marathon.
Brett Grimes pitched all nine innings for the Maroons earning the win on the mound. Grimes also went 2 for 4 at the plate, with a double, and stole home in the seventh inning to tie the game and force extra innings. Hunter Mills hit a double in the ninth inning, driving in the game winning run.
The Maroons were led at the plate by Tim McAfee going 3 for 5, including a double and a run, Jared Mosier going 2 for 4, two stolen bases, and three runs.
Patrick Henry was led by Caleb Frye going 2 for 3 and a run, and Cody Hicks going 2 for 4 and a run.
The Maroons started out strong in the first inning with Mosier reaching base on a walk, Grimes followed with a double to left field advancing Mosier to third base. Mosier then stole home for the first run of the night.
The first two innings for Patrick Henry left it scoreless as Grimes retired the first 6 batters he faced.
Both teams picked up the pace in the third and fourth innings. McAfee started the inning off with a double to left field, and Mosier followed with a single. Grimes advanced both runners on a sacrifice bunt and Matt Deters came up to the plate and nailed a triple to center field. Deters was left stranded on third as Will Copenhaver struck out the next batter, walking one then striking out the last batter of the inning.
Patrick Henry took the lead in the third and fourth innings with the help of four GW fielding errors. Copenhaver reached base on an error to lead off the third inning followed by singles from Hicks and Frye. Ronnie Groves came up and smacked a ground rule double to right center field scoring both Hicks and Frye. PH collected three more runs in the fourth inning with two of the first three batters reaching base on errors along with singles by Copenhaver and Frye.
The fifth and sixth innings were scoreless for both teams as Grimes and Copenhaver pitched two strong innings. The bats and fans for GW, however, lit up in the seventh inning. GW was down 6-3. Gabe DiYorio started off the inning with a single. PH then snagged a pop fly for the first out of the inning. Mosier then hit his second single of the night. Mosier and DiYorio both stole bases to advance to second and third base.
Grimes, next up to bat, drilled a line drive to right center scoring both Mosier and DiYorio making the score 6-5. Copenhaver struck out GW’s next batter and Grimes stole second base. Steven Quinn reached first and Grimes advanced to third on a PH error.
With Mills up to bat for GW, 2 outs and two strikes, Grimes took off for home during the pitcher’s delivery and stole home to score the tying run. The GW dugout and fans became nothing short of ecstatic.
Mills ended up drawing a walk and was left stranded along with Quinn when PH’s Shane Puckett made a great catch of Mitch Castanon’s ball to right center field.
The bottom of the 7th inning yielded no runs for PH with the help of great catching from freshman catcher Castanon, a strike out, and phenomenal line drive catches by second baseman Mosier and shortstop Quinn.
In the 8th inning, with two outs, McAfee hit his second hit of the night only to be left stranded by a fly out by Mosier.
The experience of GW senior pitcher became instrumental. He struck out the first batter he faced and walked the second. Groves was up to bat, who had earlier hit a ground rule double, when Coach Ward decided to give him an intentional walk. With the potential tying and winning run on base, Grimes was able to make two crucial putouts to first baseman Deters with groundouts to the infield.
With one out in the top of the ninth inning, Deters drew a walk and the next batter grounded out. With two outs, sophomore Hunter Mills came up to the plate and drilled a double scoring Deters for the winning run of the game.
With the game on the line in the bottom of the ninth inning, Grimes was able to get great backup with crucial catches from McAfee, DiYorio, and Mosier for the win.
GW, the youthful underdogs of this game, played with great team effort and strong coaching.
GW (5-9, 3-3) will host Patrick Henry (6-8, 4-2) on Friday for their second meeting of the season and PH was scheduled to play Holston Monday night.