The Tom Sox played the Braves at Crutchfield park on Thursday night, their fourth game in an eleven game stretch. Inconsistency was once again the name of the game for the Tom Sox until a walk-off double from Trevor Candelaria (Davidson) sealed the deal, winning 7-6, elevating Coach Koehler’s squad to an 8-2 record.
Both pitchers held their own to start the game, leaving the first two innings scoreless. The Braves started the scoring off in the top of the third, with a double to left field from Bren Taylor (Millersville.) The Braves would go on to score again in the fourth and fifth as well, the former being Joseph Delossantos (William and Mary) scoring from two consecutive Tom Sox errors and the latter being a homerun by Justin Hanvey (East Tennessee State), leaving the score at 3-0 Braves.
The bats finally got hot for the Tom Sox in the bottom of the sixth, starting with Cal Stark’s (Weatherford). Wyatt Langford (Florida) started things off with a run scored off a fielder’s choice and then Stark followed it up with a three-run homerun, bringing Trevor Candelaria (Davidson) and Langford home with him. Cole Foster brought the Sox to five runs with a run scored on a catcher error.
The Tom Sox called and Staunton answered with a double to right field from Justin Hanvey
in the top of the seventh for one run, and a two-run homerun in the eighth from Delossantos. With the score now at 6-5, the Tom Sox could not get anything going on offense for the seventh and eighth innings. Luckily for Charlottesville, Pitcher James Vaughn (Duke), in his first time on the mound this season, held the Braves off for one more inning. In the bottom of the ninth, the Sox showed signs of life, with Logan Amiss (VCU) and Gehrig Ebel (Virginia Tech) making it on base. With the entire team on their feet, Candelaria hit a walkoff double to secure the win for the Sox, quickly greeted by high fives and a gatorade bath from his teammates.
The Tom Sox travel to Harrisonburg Friday to take on the Turks at 7:30 pm, a team that they beat on the road last Saturday, 8-5. Checkout the team’s social media pages for live updates throughout the game.
