Posted: April 12, 2013
By GREG BRILL
Special to The Winchester Star
STEPHENS CITY — No doubt one of the biggest stories during the Sherando baseball team’s ride to perfection through nine games has been its ability to throw different pitchers on the mound each game and basically get the same results.
During Thursday night’s Northwestern District game with visiting James Wood, Sherando left-hander John Bentley took the hill and provided another magnificent performance to spark the Warriors to a 6-0 win.
The senior improved to 3-0 by pitching six solid innings, striking out nine and limiting the Colonels to just four hits. Two of the hits Bentley gave up came in his final inning (the sixth), and he turned things over to Reid Entsminger in the seventh after reaching 96 pitches.
Entsminger threw a scoreless seventh and the Warriors’ staff sent their scoreless-innings streak to 24 straight. The shutout win was the third straight for Sherando (9-0, 5-0 Northwestern), and Handley was the last team to score against the Warriors, putting up all of its runs in the first inning in an 18-3 loss to Sherando at Bridgeforth Field back on April 4.
A three-run homer by junior Chase Smallwood in the first inning off James Wood starter Addison Barber provided all the support Bentley would need as he picked up another district win. Bentley and sophomore left-hander Adam Whitacre combined on a one-hit shutout March 27 at Skyline, and James Wood (3-7, 1-4) suffered its second-straight shutout loss. Handley blanked the Colonels 11-0 on Tuesday.
For Bentley, it was a matter of getting himself into a rhythm after he missed some borderline pitches for strikes early on. Bentley’s pitch total was at 43 after two innings, when he gave up two of his three walks during his stint and also because of a two-out error at short in the second that extended the inning and allowed the Colonels to get a pair of runners into scoring position. Bentley worked out of it though, busting Andy Kennedy inside on a 3-2 pitch for a called strike three.
Four of the first nine batters to face Bentley worked the count to 3-2, but over his final four innings, Bentley was very fluid. Over the first five innings, only Nick Goode (2 for 2 with a walk) had any success hitting against Bentley, and Bentley showed his dominant self by striking out the side in order in the fourth (on 10 pitches) and adding two more punchouts in the fifth. The Colonels hit a few balls sharply in the sixth, and with his pitch count approaching 100, it was time to shut down for the evening.
With a six-run lead heading to the seventh, Sherando pitching coach Craig Bodenschatz wasn’t taking any chances anyway, and Entsminger got to throw an inning in the Warriors’ final game of the week.
While he continues to torment teams at the plate, Smallwood (2 for 2 with a walk) also has been a guiding force at catcher to a staff that not many outside Sherando’s camp thought would be this good this soon.
Smallwood said he and Bentley managed the game well enough to know what pitches to throw James Wood batters in any particular count, and that his battery mate did pick up steam well as the game played out by using multiple pitches for strikes.
“The umpire was giving us a couple calls on the outer-half, and setting him up, he was painting the corner, painting the corner, painting the corner,” Smallwood said. “His curveball was painting the corner and even his change-up got high one time, and [the batter] still swung at it. I guess the guy thought a curve was coming. He’s been going real well with all three pitches lately.”
Sherando coach Pepper Martin said afterward that he feels comfortable with as many as eight players taking a shot on the mound. He has not used all eight as of yet, but if he ends up doing so, at some point this season, he says he feels confident enough that each pitcher can give him quality innings.
With Bodenschatz in his dugout every season since at least the late 1990s, Martin, who says he always seeks input from Bodenschatz, has allowed his pitching coach more freedom this season on determining who gets starts from game to game.
Sherando players and Martin alike always sing the praises of Bodenshatz, and a 9-0 start after losing 17 of the 19 wins they put up last season to win the district proves just how well the new crop of arms have developed.
“Coach Bodenschatz has done an outstanding job with our pitching staff,” Martin said. “He’s grown through the years as a pitching coach and he just does an extremely good job. I’m giving him the opportunity to start whoever he wants, and take it from there.”
The Warriors were likewise eager to get an opportunity to face a top-flight pitcher like Barber, who will play for Old Dominion next spring as a preferred walk-on. Sherando did not reach double-digit runs, but it did accomplish one goal, and that was to knock Barber out of the game early (after 32/3 innings).
With Whitacre (single, two steals) and Jacob Carney (walk and a steal) making things happen on the base paths right away, Sherando was in a good spot when Smallwood came up with one out in the first. Smallwood parked a 2-0 pitch just over the left-field wall for his first homer of the season and a 3-0 lead.
Later No. 8 batter Jeb Brown (2 for 3, two RBIs) stroked a two-out, ground single up the middle to make it 5-0.
In the sixth, Brown knocked in Sherando’s final run with his single to right to make it 6-0.
It was players like Brown and Scottie Nicholson (batting ninth he went 1 for 2 with a double) that helped show the depth of the batting order that has been one of the most pleasing developments Martin has seen thus far.
“This is the third time this season we’ve gotten a [team’s] No. 1 [pitcher], and we were looking forward to the challenge,” Martin said. “We got the big hit from Chase early, then we were able to scratch a couple more across. We’ve been hitting well from the top of our order to the bottom of our order.”
The Colonels were kind of a hit-and-miss club all night. When they did manage to put runners aboard, they just could not move them around.
“I think I counted eight left on base and four in scoring position, and it’s all about [getting] a timely hit,” James Wood coach Jared Mounts said. “I thought we hit the ball well tonight, but you’ve got to get the hit when they’re on second and third to score them. We’re not doing that, and we’ll continue to work on that.”
Bentley admits that one of the team goals is to run the table in the Northwestern.
“We fully expect to keep things rolling here, right on through the middle of the season, and finish it up and have a heck of a season,” Bentley said. “That’s goal No. 1 [finishing 12-0 in district], right there. At the top of the list.”