Hectic finish leads to baseball win for James River

Six outs.

Six measly outs.

That’s all the James River Rapids needed to record Tuesday night to put visiting Midlothian away in yet another episode of their long-standing Chesterfield County baseball rivalry.

With two innings left to play on the Dave Cottrell Field, you see, Coach Pete Schumacher’s guys held a 5-3 lead, and relief pitcher Conner Sprouse had just recorded three strikeouts in the top of the fourth after Brody Still led off with a home run into the woods behind the left field wall.

The Rapids were now in control, it seemed.

The momentum, fueled by Sprouse’s strong right arm, was theirs.

Energy flowed from their dugout. 

It was a stick-a-fork-in-it, they’re-done moment.

All they needed to do, then, was finish.

The Trojans, though, had other ideas.

OK, sure, the Rapids ultimately scored a 7-3 victory, but those final six outs came with a much higher degree of difficulty they hoped or imagined. 

“Yes,” Schumacher said. “Very much so.

“A lot of times when you get down late the wind’s out of your sails. Hats off to Midlo. They fought and battled.”

Ben McAuliffe led off the Midlothian sixth by drawing a walk and advanced to second on Hank Carroll’s single up the middle that, had not JR second baseman Eli Hulette made a lunging stop, would have gone for extra bases and perhaps sent McAuliffe home.

Grant Meyers followed with a shot to Sprouse, but McAuliffe, running on the pitch, beat Sprouse’s throw to third to load the bases with one out.

The Rapids (12-1) then turned an exquisitely executed shortstop-to-second-to-first double play made possible when Hulette, the second baseman, took the throw from Matt Schumacher, pivoted on the move, and with no margin for error made the pinpoint throw to Will Camera to retire the side and end the threat.

“I’m trying to do what I can to help my pitchers out,” Hulette said. “I want them to trust our defense.”

They weren’t the first gems Hulette delivered, nor were they the last.

In the first inning, he was the middleman on another 6-4-3 double play that quickly ended a potential Midlo rally.

The next inning, the Trojans (4-9) went up 2-0.  McAuliffe singled and advanced to second on Carroll’s sacrifice bunt, then to third on Meyers’s single. Brady Kinker entered as a courtesy runner for Meyers and promptly stole second. As he did, McAuliffe stole home.

Still’s liner up the middle then scored Kinker.

In the third, James River strung together five singles to score four runs.  Smith’s shot down the leftfield line scored Matt Schumacher; Hulette’s sharp single to left scored Nolan Anthony and Smith; and Jake Schumacher’s single to center sent Hulette across the plate.

“I got into a two-strike count,” Hulette said. “He’d thrown me a lot of off speed. I was just trying to sit on that and take it the other way, and it went right over the shortstop.”

James River went up 5-2 in the bottom of the fourth.

Smith led off by drawing a base on balls and ultimately crossed the plate when Camera drew a bases-loaded walk.

After Still’s home run cut the Trojans’ deficit to two runs and James River’s defensive handiwork prevented further damage, the Rapids added a two-run cushion in the bottom of the sixth.

Smith led off with another walk, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored when Hulette smacked a shot to right and stretched an apparent single into a double with a head-first slide into second.

“Coach Schu(macher) and our whole coaching staff preach about hustling,” Hulette said. “I saw it get past (the fielder). Immediately, I was thinking, take an extra base.”

Hulette moved to third thanks to Alex Adams’s sacrifice bunt and scored when Sprouse reached base on an infield error. 

“I came up to the plate in multiple situations with runners in scoring position and less than two outs,” said Hulette. “I was just trying to do my job and put the ball in play.”

All told, Hulette, the leadoff hitter, went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI.

Smith, who bats last in the order, went 1-for-1, walked twice, and converted his offensive opportunities into three runs scored.

“As the nine-hole hitter,” Smith said, “I just want to get on base for the leadoff batters so they can produce. Everybody knows they can contribute.”