|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
'The boys gave us a good summer'
Gators players had the opportunity to pack their belongings a little earlier than hoped and leave the homes of their summer host families in Fauquier County.
Their contract obligations ended with a 9-1 loss to the six-seeded Covington Lumberjacks in the Valley Baseball League playoffs last Wednesday, giving the third-seeded Gators a 25-21 final record.
But Fauquier coach Paul Koch didn’t want to let the Gators leave town without planting some seeds for next season. Not after such an improvement over the 14-30 record the Gators posted in 2007.
"With a team as successful as we had, in the next month or so we'll try to get a bunch of them re-signed for next year," Koch said after Wednesday's loss. "We’ll talk about it as an organization and probably talk to some of them before they leave."
Among the best Gators this season were all-stars Shawn Griffith (George Mason), Jon Luke Jacobs (Auburn), Chad Pierce (Arkansas) and Ryan Gauck (Marist), who was lost to a broken thumb near the end of the regular season — no doubt a detriment against Covington.
Gauck was easily the best hitter in a Gators lineup that struggled all season. The first baseman finished with a .326 batting average (VBL rank: 10th), two home runs, 20 runs and 16 RBIs. Pierce finished with a .261 average and 21 RBIs.
Meanwhile, the Fauquier pitching staff was loaded with talent and finished as one of the best in the league. Griffith led the VBL with 13 saves by striking out 27 in 20.1 innings and keeping a 1.77 ERA.
Jacobs, a reliever, led the VBL with 72 strikeouts in only 44 innings and finished with a 4-1 record and a 1.84 ERA.
Rob Whitley (Virginia Tech) and Ben Blanton (Vanderbilt) were other four-game winners as Fauquier starters. Plus, Jack VanLeur (Creighton) finished with the fifth-best ERA in the league among players with enough innings pitched, finishing with a 2.35 mark and 2-2 record.
All those numbers helped the Gators improve on the 14-win record from their inaugural 2007 season in the VBL...
See the Wednesday print edition of the Fauquier Times-Democrat for the complete story.
You must be logged in to post a comment.