'Sox Fall Short in 3-1 Loss to Front Royal

By: Matt Becker

FRONT ROYAL Va. - After a gutsy win against the Harrisonburg Turks, the Tom Sox returned to action tonight against the Front Royal Cardinals. This game would be the second of three North Division ballparks the ‘Sox would be visiting.

The Tom Sox have Evan Alwine toeing the rubber tonight against Dylan Henshaw. Alwine received VBL South Division Pitcher of the Week before tonight's game after his stellar outing in Covington.

Alwine enters the day with a 2.61 earned run average in 20.2 innings pitched as well as a 1.06 WHIP.

Let’s see how the game played out:

After a leadoff double and a single, Front Royal jumped off to an early 1-0 lead. Alwine was getting hit hard early and needed to find a way to limit the damage. With runners at the corners, Alwine forced a ground ball to work a 4-6-3 double play. The right-handed pitcher was able to work out of the inning, only allowing two runs.

The Cardinals would tack on another run in the bottom of the second, making it 3-0.

The Tom Sox knew it had built a hole, but it's nothing the team hasn’t seen before. In its last game, the ‘Sox trailed 6-2 in the top of the fourth before mounting a comeback. The only question was whether the team could muster that together today.

After the first runner reached on an error to lead off the bottom of the third, Dom Cafferillo (Georgetown) threw an absolute seam to Will Yow (Virginia) to catch the runner stealing.

After the chaos in the first three innings, Alwine was able to settle down in the bottom of the fourth, throwing his first one-two-three inning.

The ‘Sox offense continued to struggle as the team was no-hit through the first five innings.

Finally, in the top of the fifth with one out, Cafferillo smoked a ball off the third baseman's glove for the first hit of the game.

The ‘Sox would get another runner on base via an error but would strand both runners on base to retire the side.

With a runner on and two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Alwine got pulled for Chris Fortunato (Stevenson), who was making his ‘Sox debut. Alwine finished the game with a final line of five and two-thirds innings pitched, five hits, three runs, two earned runs, one walk and five strikeouts.

Fortunato retired the side with a popout to the first baseman and left a runner stranded.

After the first two batters went down in the top of the seventh, Aiden Harris scorched a double of the top of the left-center field wall. Unfortunately, the Tom Sox were unable to cash in Harris from second.

Fortunato returned for the bottom of the seventh and pitched a stellar one-two-three inning, including a strikeout, to retire the side.

The right-hander ended the day with two and one-third innings pitched, no hits, no runs, no walks and three strikeouts.

In the top of the ninth, Xavier McCoury (Liberty) walked, stole second and advanced to third. With one out, Tommy Landsnes scored McCoury on an opposite-field single to make it 3-1.

But that was the only run the Tom Sox would get in the game, as the team fell 3-1 to Front Royal.

UP NEXT: The Tom Sox return home to take on the Covington Lumberjacks with the first pitch coming at 8:00 P.M. EST. Tomorrow's game starts a three-game homestand in four days for the Tom Sox as the team looks to climb the standings.