Warriors bounce back with crucial win - Sports

FRONT ROYAL— It seemed as though Skyline was going to put on a hitting clinic Friday.

Sherando pitcher Curry Clevenger had other ideas, settling in and stifling the Hawks at the plate to help the Warriors earn a 5-2 win with a 68-pitch, complete-game performance.

In the bottom of the first, already down 1-0 after a Chris Tripp RBI single in the top of the inning, the Skyline Hawks came out with three straight hits to start the inning.

Nate Jackson led off by smoking a double to right-center field, and Keaton Neeb drove him in with an RBI single in the next at-bat.

Tyler Atkins moved the runner over on an infield single, and Neeb scored on a Jon King grounder to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead.

Those would be the only two runs Clevenger allowed on the evening, and he went on to allow only two more hits the rest of the night.

"It had me a little rattled, but I settled down," Clevenger said. "I just started throwing strikes and letting the defense play behind me."

Meanwhile, the Warriors evened the score in the second before Nick Merchant delivered the go-ahead run in the third on a solo home run over the left-field fence to make the score 3-2.

"Two strikes on me, I had to protect and he left it inside and I went with the pitch and I had a good swing," Merchant said of the blast.

The Hawks made a valiant effort in the bottom of the third to get the run back after Jackson again led off the inning with a base hit.

But the potential rally would be stymied on a nice stab by Warriors first baseman Jeff Porter on a Neeb line drive. Porter alertly hustled to the first-base bag to double up Jackson.

"We tried to hit-and-run and Porter made a nice play that took us out of a little rally there to get something going," Skyline coach Todd Miller said.

"We were hitting the ball hard, just right at people every time. We just haven't caught any breaks yet this season," Neeb added.

After giving up one more run in the fourth to give the Warriors a 4-2 advantage, Skyline pitcher Jon King continued to battle and keep the Hawks in the game, getting stronger as the innings wore on and recording four of his five strikeouts in his last two innings of work.

"He gets a little frustrated," Neeb, the Hawks catcher, said of his pitcher. "He starts to speed up and you can see him shake his head and you just have to calm him down and keep him focused."

Sherando added an insurance run in the top of the seventh to give the Warriors the final margin and a much-needed district win after two difficult defeats.

"This was a very important game for us with back-to-back disappointing losses where we didn't perform up to our abilities," Sherando coach Pepper Martin said. "It was really encouraging to see a total performance tonight by our team."

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