By Sports editor Brian Hoffman
Two strong pitching performances have put the William Byrd baseball team in the running for the Blue Ridge District regular season title. Byrd will have some key games in the coming week as they battle for position in the coming Region 3D tournament.
Last Thursday at Staunton River Terrier sophomore Blake Glover pitched a perfect game in a five-inning, 11-0 win over the host Eagles. Glover struck out five of 15 batters faced, didn’t walk or hit anyone and no one committed an error behind him in the field. It was the first perfect game by a Byrd pitcher that anyone could remember.
James Purcell led the offense against River with three hits in three at bats, including two doubles, to drive home two runs. Evan Mullen had two runs batted in.
On Tuesday at Northside senior Hunter Sipe pitched a gem as Byrd defeated a strong hitting team of Vikings, 13-4. Hunter pitched a complete game with eight strikeouts while allowing just five hits, all singles. He didn’t walk anyone and just two of Northside’s four runs were earned.
The Terriers jumped on top early in this one, scoring two runs in the top of the first and four more in the second for a 6-0 lead.They led 10-3 after five innings and put a crooked three on the board in the top of the seventh before Northside scored one more run in the bottom to close out the game.
Sipe not only pitched a great game, he also had three hits and five runs batted in at the plate. Ethan Hairston had four hits as well, Trenton Sayers had two hits and two RBIs and Purcell doubled, walked three times and was hit by a pitch.
With the win Byrd improved to 6-2 in the district and 13-4 overall. The Terriers will host last place William Fleming tonight in a 5:30 pm “Senior Night” game. That was moved up from Friday due to threat of rain.
On Monday Byrd will host Franklin County at 7 pm in a game that could tie the two at the top of the BRD if the Terriers pull out a win. The Eagles are 7-1 in the district after losing to Lord Botetourt on Tuesday night.