June 10, 2012

Special to VirginiaPreps.com
VirginiaPreps.com

By: MICHAEL PEEDIN | Daily Progress correspondent

SALEM - The William Monroe baseball team capped a fantastic season and achieved their goal of a state title on Saturday, edging Chilhowie 5-4 in extra innings in the Group A, Division 2 championship game. The senior-laden team finished the season with a 28-1 record.

Keegan Woolford won the game for the Dragons in the bottom of the eighth inning, smacking an RBI single that plated Austin Batten for a walk-off win.

"Incredible," said William Monroe coach Mike Maynard, the Bull Run District Coach of the Year. "That was a great ending to a great season. Keegan Woolford came through with a big hit for us. Austin Batten got on base. Spencer Breeden moved him over. We hit and run there. [We were] very fortunate."

The Dragons had three close calls during their run to the state championship, beating Stuarts Draft 2-0, Appomattox County 3-2 in nine innings, and Chilhowie 5-4 in eight innings.

Two-time Bull Run District Player of the Year Jordan Gentry, who is headed to Louisburg (N.C.) College, finished a sterling high school baseball career with another great pitching performance, striking out nine Warriors. Gentry has done it all for the Dragons, playing shortstop when he is not on the mound while serving as the team's leadoff hitter.

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Chilhowie rallies from 4 behind but can't hold on
The Warriors fell just short of becoming the school's first state champions in decades.

By Robert Anderson

Forty-two years.  And counting.

Chilhowie's baseball team nearly delivered the first state championship of any kind since 1970 to the Smyth County school, but the Warriors fell just shy Saturday as William Monroe posted a 5-4 victory in eight innings in the Group A Division 2 final at Kiwanis Field.

Chilhowie (25-3) overcame an early 4-0 deficit to tie the game in the sixth inning, but a one-out single in the eighth by freshman Keegan Woolford drove in the winning run as the Dragons (29-1) took their first state baseball title back to Stanardsville.

Chilhowie coach Jeff Robinson, a 1994 alumnus of the Smyth County school, took the loss in stride.

"This was a lot of fun," Robinson said. "Even coming up on the short end it feels good to be a part of such a classic game."

The championship showdown had a large crowd representing each school on its feet much of the day.

Both starting pitchers - William Monroe's Jordan Gentry and Chilhowie's Caleb Sheets - worked into the eighth inning.

Gentry was relieved by Lamar Nelson with two outs in the top of the eighth after issuing his ninth walk of the game, a free pass to Sheets.

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