CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The Charlottesville Tom Sox (17-5) battled back in the ninth inning against the Waynesboro Generals (9-13) to earn a hard-fought 3-2 win on Friday at Charlottesville High School. Chase Stryker (Coastal Carolina) showed up with a career-high seven strikeouts and Robbie Lavey (George Washington) sent the ‘Sox home smiling with a walk-off two-run home run.
A string of unfortunate events struck the ‘Sox in the top of the first as starting pitcher Tommy Roldan (Virginia) was injured covering first base on a sharp ground ball down the line. Sam Mummau (Florida) made a nifty diving stop to keep the ball in the infield, but his throw sailed past Roldan — who exited the game after the play — allowing a runner to score and giving Waynesboro a 1-0 lead.
Roldan was relieved by Garrett Mason (Virginia Tech), who navigated the rest of the inning without any additional damage in his first appearance since June 2.
Ethan Sutton (Georgia) would take over on the mound in the second inning and kept the ‘Sox in the game, cruising through two dominant innings of work while the offense went down in order in each of the first four frames. But Sutton’s night came to an abrupt end in the top of the fourth as a second C’Ville pitcher was bitten by the injury bug, leaving with an elbow injury.
Stryker then made his way to the mound for a quick warm-up and proceeded to dominate. When the ‘Sox needed him most, the righty would go on to throw 4.2 innings of one-run ball, surrendering just three hits while striking out seven. The Generals’ lone run off Stryker came in the fifth inning on a sac-fly from Cesar Morillo to extend their lead to 2-0.
Jake Books (Coastal Carolina) was the first player to reach base for the ‘Sox, walking to lead off the bottom of the fifth after Generals starter Giovanni Arzuaga set down the first 12 batters in a row. But it would be Johnnie Lopez (Seminole State) who plated the first run of the evening for C’Ville. After reaching on a fielder’s choice, Lopez came around to score on a Cooper Blauser (Jacksonville State) RBI single — his first hit of the season in his first game — to cut the Waynesboro lead in half.
The 2-1 score would hold into the bottom of the ninth as both offenses kept quiet through the latter half of the game. With one final chance in the ninth inning, Dean Mihos (Coastal Carolina) kickstarted the ‘Sox rally with a leadoff walk. After a strikeout, Lavey stepped to the plate and with one swing flipped what was an otherwise sluggish offensive night for the ‘Sox upside down, blasting a 1-1 pitch over the right-center-field fence for a two-run, walk-off home run.
Lavey’s fifth long ball of the season sent the ‘Sox fans happy on First Responder’s Night at Willie T. Barnett Field with a 3-2 victory.
UP NEXT:
The Tom Sox will be off this weekend for VBL All-Star Weekend. They will return to action on Monday for the first of two consecutive games in Harrisonburg.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- Lavey’s home run is the first Tom Sox walk-off home run since Gavin Abrams hit a 3-run shot to knock off Harrisonburg in July 2022.
- Charlottesville recorded a walk-off win for the second time this season, joining their 11-inning win over Culpeper on June 14.
- The Tom Sox have won seven of their last eight games against the Generals.
- Charlottesville hitters recorded three extra-base hits, one more than the previous three games combined.
- Stryker’s seven strikeouts marked a collegiate career-high.
- Tonight’s game marked the 18th one-run game in the 62-game series history between Charlottesville and Waynesboro (29% of games).
