Baseball: Early Godby surge downs Rutherford

SPRINGFIELD — Midway through Godby’s 8-5 win over Rutherford Tuesday at the Vera Shamplain Complex it seemed like the Rams were adding injury to insult.

They trailed the Cougars by eight runs by the top of the fourth inning and had lost two regulars to ankle sprains. In addition, to that point of the game they were showing that they couldn’t throw the ball, catch it, field it or hit it. And that’s not to mention making four outs on the basepaths.

When Rutherford resultantly rallied against gritty left-hander Landus Pemberton, it left both coaches a little perplexed at the contrasts they’d witnessed.

Most importantly, the Cougars, 6-3, evened their District 2-4A record at 1-1 while the Rams slumped to 4-3, 0-2, and became a prime candidate for the play-in game during the district tournament next month.

Godby came in hitting .353 as a team, but averaging nearly four errors per game. The outcome belied the numbers, as the Cougars had just six hits to only one error.

“Completely,” Godby coach Robbie Zimmerman said. “And we’ve never got the early lead; it seems like we relaxed a little bit. We’ve got to learn how to play with the lead, otherwise the way we executed I was very pleased.”

The Cougars took advantage of a rare subpar outing by Rutherford ace Dakota Spikes, who had walked only five in 16 innings but nearly equaled that number before being pulled with no outs in the second.

Godby went ahead 2-0 in the first when Spikes walked two, and Johnny Blue Craig scored a run with a sacrifice fly and Brandon Colson chased in another with an opposite-field single.

It became 7-0 when the Rams unraveled in the second inning. Three walks, an error, fielder’s choice, wild pitch, two passed balls and two hits did the damage. By the time Jessy Pace came on, Tyler Zimmerman’s first of two hits had plated one run and Craig’s infield out another.

The rest were the result of a Rutherford meltdown.

“We had no energy, I have no idea why,” Rams coach Jon Hudson said. “He’s been unbelievable,” he said of Spikes. “Tonight he couldn’t command his fastball and the defense couldn’t keep us in the game.”

Then came injuries to left fielder Dillon Stalnaker and Michael Heimbuch, who started at shortstop and moved to right field when Spikes came off the mound. They joined teammate Heath Bailey, already sidelined.

By the time the Rams rallied against Pemberton it was too late. The 140-pound senior tired, and Rutherford drilled eight of its 10 hits from the fourth inning on.

Josh Jonas had three of them, including two doubles, and Dondrell Harris and Pace each had an RBI double. Spikes and Vincent Foxworthy also had two hits each.

“He battled, but he ran out of gas,” Zimmerman said. “He begged me to go out there in the seventh. I probably shouldn’t have let him go.”

Zimmerman said Pemberton was one batter away from being relieved in the bottom of the sixth inning when Rutherford closed within 8-4. When Drew Sikes walked and Jonas drilled his third hit of the game with two outs in the seventh, Zimmerman had seen enough.

Bobby Welsh came out to get the final out, but not until Pace launched a drive against the left-field fence. Pemberton walked five and struck out four to move to 2-1.

Hudson acknowledged that his team dug a hole too deep, but was perplexed at the Rams’ baserunning. Three times Pemberton picked off runners from first, despite the Rams trailing by at least seven runs each time. Catcher Casey Grier pegged out another trying to advance when the ball bounced 10 feet away from the plate.

“If you can’t read a move you’ve got to hold,” Hudson said. “We took ourselves out of big innings.” 

In addition to outhitting Godby 10 to six, Rutherford also was sparked by strong relief pitching. Pace and J. Davis limited Godby to a pair of singles from the second inning on.

Rutherford is at Arnold Friday, and the Rams have a rematch at Godby on Tuesday.

• Godby 250 100 0 — 8 6 1
• Rutherford 000 121 1 — 5 10 1
• LOB: Godby 4, Rutherford 6. E: Godby (Craig), Rutherford (Davis). 2B: Godby (Grier), Rutherford (Jonas 2, Dondrell Harris, Pace). SB: Godby (Granger). CS: Rutherford (Foxworthy by Grier). SF: Godby (Craig, Richards). SAC: Godby (Gavin). WP: Godby (Pemberton 2), Rutherford (Pace 2, Spikes). PB: Rutherford (Colburn 2). BK: Godby (Pemberton), Rutherford (Pace).