Cosby's bats come alive in baseball win over Manchester
The rain finally arrived.
The passion? The energy? The joie de vivre?
They were there in prodigious quantities from the outset, and no doubt about it, they provided the fuel that propelled the Cosby Titans to a 16-4 victory over Manchester Thursday evening on the Lancers’ home diamond.
“Great effort,” said Cosby Coach Tom Nelson of his guys’ performance. “Our bats came alive. We had a lot of good at-bats. We had several multi-pitch at-bats where there were more than 10 pitches, and then we ended up getting on base.
“It can break a pitcher when he throws a lot of pitches and you still get on base. And we played a really clean (actually, errorless) game in the field.”
Though the score suggests a walk in the park, the Titans’ victory was anything but.
Manchester catcher Easton Butts, a Lynchburg University commit, opened the bottom of the first with a home run into the woods behind the 310-foot right field wall.
“Honestly, they did the same thing to us last year: led off with a home run, actually the same kid,” said Wyatt Mathews, the Titans’ senior second baseman and team leader.
“We were in that position then and came out on top, so I had confidence that that one swing didn’t matter. I,t was early, and there was a lot of baseball left to play.”
Yes, there was.
Two innings later, as the overcast sky grew more ominous and the unseasonably cool wind intensified, the Titans (17-3) loaded the bases when Seth Cheatham, Luca Briggs, and Blake LaMattina stroked consecutive singles and Tyler Tapscott cleared them with a two-strike grand slam home run to right center.
“Great at-bat,” Nelson said. “Four hundred feet, it looked like. That really broke the game open for us. Down one and instantly up 4-1. That was the turning point right there.”
Now rolling, Cosby (17-3) added two more runs in the top of the fourth when Mathews singled, Cameron Satterfield walked, and Cheatam drove them home with a single to left.
What might have demoralized and completely broken Manchester, though, didn’t.
Landon Anderson led off the fourth with a single to right and advanced to second, then third on a passed ball. Judah Parks walked, and Josh Shaffer followed with a home run to center to cut the Lancers’ deficit to 6-4.
Unfazed, the Titans added another run in the fifth when Matthew Scobey walked, moved to second, then third on wild pitches, and scored on a balk.
Cosby was now up 7-4 after four-and-a-half innings. It was still anyone’s game…until it wasn’t.
As large drops of rain began to fall, the wind picked up even more, umbrellas opened, and the tension of the moment intensified, the Lancers (17-3) loaded the bases when Butts, Asher Blalock, and Anderson drew consecutive walks to open the bottom of the fifth.
Enter LaMattina, who started at shortstop but was now charged with saving the moment from the mound.
The junior righthander responded exquisitely by striking out the side to end the threat.
“Came in in a tough spot,” he said. “I was trying to give my team a chance by throwing strikes and making the other team do what they had to do to get on base. Fortunately, that did not happen.”
Now, riding the crest of their momentum, the Titans dropped the hammer with nine runs in the top of the sixth to make the outcome a fait accompli.
Cheatham’s single to right started the barrage.
The Titans followed with four more hits, four walks, and a hit-by-pitch.
Cheatham’s single to left, his fourth hit of the game in five at-bats, ultimately scored Mathews and Satterfield with the visitors’ final runs.
LaMattina returned to the mound in the bottom of the sixth, picked up where he left off, and struck out the side to end the game.
“We got a huge inning after coming in with the bases loaded,” LaMattina said. “The mercy rule was in effect. I wanted to work the zone, throw strikes, and get out of here early.”
The Titans’ victory avenges a 2-0 loss to Manchester on April 24 and extends their winning streak to 10 with the regional playoffs next on their docket.
They’re excited about the next phase of their season, for sure.
“We had all the confidence in the world,” said Mathews of Cosby’s mindset as they prepared for their final regular season game. “We were hyped up from the start. We took it seriously. We stayed up. We stayed engaged. We stayed focused. No one took a break, even our bench.”
There’s more…
“This is the most fun baseball I’ve ever played, this year, 100 percent,” he added. “This is the best team, not just the skill level. It’s the brotherhood. It’s a family.”
