The William Byrd baseball team took a four-game winning streak and an overall record of 10-2 into a non-district game at Cave Spring Wednesday. The Terriers will play a big Blue Ridge game at Lord Botetourt Friday.
Wednesday’s results were too late for publication, but the Terriers were red hot heading to south county after winning four games in seven days. The streak started with an 11-1 blowout of Bassett at Walthall Park in Vinton last Wednesday. Coach Jason Taylor called up Brogan Dent from the jayvee team to pitch and he was near flawless, twirling a two-hitter and striking out 10 for his first varsity win.
Byrd ran wild on the Bengals, stealing eight bases in nine tries. Ethan Hairston was three-for-three at the plate with four stolen bases and Trenton Sayers had two hits and four runs batted in.
On Friday the Terriers played host to Northside. The Vikings came into the game undefeated in the BRD and 10-1 overall, but the Byrdmen gave them their first loss with a 3-0 shutout win.
Senior lefty Hunter Sipe took the mound for Byrd and pitched a gem threw six innings, shutting out the Vikings on five hits and fanning seven. However, Northside opened the seventh with a single. Sipe struck out the next two batters but another single put runners on first and second and Hunter had to leave the game due to the VHSL pitch count rule.
Blake Glover came in to close and promptly walked the first batter he saw on four pitches to load the bases. Dylan Dampeer, son of Viking coach Kelly Dampeer, was up next and took the first two pitches for balls to work a 2-0 count. However, Glover gathered himself and struck out Dampeer to end the game and pick up the save.
Sipe also had two hits in this game. He was in the middle of a two-run third inning as Byrd scored on a sacrifice fly by Ross Divers and a wild pitch. The Terriers picked up a third run in the fifth when Sipe singled home Ethan Hairston.
On Saturday afternoon the Terriers hosted Hidden Valley in a makeup game and took a 6-2 decision. Sayers had a strong day on the mound, pitching six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts before tiring in the seventh. The Titans scored two in the seventh with no outs before Glover came in to record the last three outs and put out the fire.
Divers had two hits in this one and Matthew Scavelli and Ethan Hairston had three runs batted in each. Israel Hairston had three of Byrd’s 10 stolen bases.
On Tuesday the Terriers traveled to Roanoke to take on a struggling William Fleming team and the Colonels continued to struggle, falling 25-0. Alex Johnson pitched the first two innings for Byrd and Peyton Leftwich, Jacob Dickerson and Devon Foutz were on the hill for one inning each in the rout. The four pitched a combined one-hitter while Byrd was led by Scavelli with three hits and Leftwich with two as everyone on the team got in the game.
After games with Cave Spring and LB this week the Terriers will continue a busy schedule next week. They’ll host Staunton River Tuesday in a jayvee-varsity doubleheader, with the jayvees opening at 5 pm. Then, on Thursday, Byrd will contclude a game at Staunton River that was halted by rain the first time around. The game will be picked up in the top of the third with Byrd leading 5-0. It will resume at 6 pm in Moneta.
