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Kettle Run pitchers chill Millbrook bats, 3-1
Had Kettle Run’s pitchers not been throwing so hard Tuesday night, the baseballs they were hurling may have frozen in midair.
With the temperature barely above 40 degrees and a harsh wind blowing at the Kettle Run field in Nokesville, Cougars starter Jimmy Bowman and reliever Jamie Driver threw heat to keep Millbrook’s bats cold in a 3-1 Kettle Run victory.
Bowman dominated the first six innings with a cut fastball and newly-polished hard curveball, and Driver pitched the seventh to earn the save by striking out three hitters with charged-up fastballs.
“That was a little bit more pop than normal,” Kettle Run coach Ty Thorpe said of Driver. “Jamie was definitely bringing it tonight.”
Prior to Tuesday, Thorpe had only used the sophomore pitcher in middle relief, but when Bowman began to falter in the seventh, the first-year coach turned to Driver.
“He’s been throwing strikes, getting ahead of batters, getting outs,” Thorpe said. “So we just felt real confident in him coming in this close game.”
Bowman began the seventh having thrown 92 pitches and having allowed Millbrook’s first run in the bottom of the sixth. He walked leadoff hitter Quin Courtney on four consecutive pitches to start the seventh, so Thorpe called on Driver to hold Kettle Run’s 3-1 lead.
Driver allowed one single, but kept Millbrook from scoring by striking out the side, often missing high with a two-strike curveball before blowing a fastball by the late-swinging Pioneers.
“He did his job,” Bowman said. “He got us out of a jam; saved my butt.”
That wasn’t the only inning in which Millbrook (4-5) threatened the lead of Kettle Run (3-5). It took an umpire’s controversial call to save Bowman in the sixth.
The Cougars led 3-0 entering the top of the sixth, but Brady Baker led off with an infield single when shortstop Robbie Spinks failed to charge a ground ball and threw late to first. Baker then stole second and scored when Kettle Run’s second baseman made a fielding error on a Jordan Hartman groundball.
Next, Colin Ryan singled through a hole at shortstop opened by a perfectly executed hit-and-run, putting Hartman on third and the tying run on first. Hartman then appeared to score when Millbrook’s next hitter, Adam Jackson, grounded into a fielder’s choice, but he was sent back to third base by the umpire.
The umpire called runner’s interference on Ryan, who slid into Spinks at second base as the shortstop tried to turn a double play. Ryan was called out at second on the force out, Jackson was ruled out at first because of the interference and Hartman wasn’t allowed to advance off third the sequence resulted in a dead ball...
See the Friday print edition of the Fauquier Weekend for the complete story.
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