Cardinals' win sets showdown against Royals

By Greg Brill -- sports@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL -- For the first time in two weeks, Steve McQuail hit a meaningful home run. Two of them, in fact.

And for the first time in over a month, Josh Varner got a pitching win.

Just all in a day's work for this band of brothers, otherwise known as the Front Royal Cardinals.

With a 6-2 win over Haymarket on Tuesday night, Front Royal improved its Valley Baseball League best overall record to 22-13. The Cardinals have now won a season-best six straight, but their lead stayed at two games in the North Division since Winchester (20-15) stayed hot, beating Fauquier 9-2 to stretch their VBL season-best win streak to 10 games.

Front Royal hosts Winchester tonight. Ross Speed (4-2) will get the start for the Cardinals in a matchup of the only two teams in the league to reach 20 wins to this point.

"It will be like a playoff game for us," Front Royal manager Joe Scarano said. "That's kind of how we're seeing it. I have a lot of respect for Winchester and coach [John] Lowery [Jr.]. There's a lot of tradition and they've been a winning team. It's good to see that they're playing their best baseball too and it would be good if our division could send a lot of teams to the playoffs."

The Cardinals have won four out of five against the Royals and a victory tonight would further inhance their desire to win the top seed for the upcoming playoffs and have home field advantage throughout.

"This team right here, we're really hungry and it doesn't matter who we are playing, we have the intensity that we are going to come out here and win the ballgame," McQuail said. "We have the determination that we can come out here and win every day."

Without a homer since July 7, McQuail opened the scoring by driving a line shot down the left-field line that barely stayed fair for a two-run homer in the third inning and a 2-0 lead. Two innings later, McQuail golfed a shot to left-center for a 4-0 lead to extend his VBL-best total to 13 on the season.

Five of McQuail's launches have come against the Senators (17-19), including three off losing pitcher Kevin Johnson (0-5).

Getting back in a comfort zone has helped McQuail, who had a double and triple Monday at New Market in a game that was suspended by rain in the ninth inning and will be completed if needed at the end of the season.

"I'd say in the past my at-bats were a little anxious," McQuail said of his recent power slump. "I was a little jumpy. Starting [Monday] night I really slowed the game down and looked for a pitch I could handle. I got my foot down early, I could see the ball longer. Off-speed or fastball, I knew that if it was over the plate I could get the barrel out and hit it hard somewhere."

Doug Oney also had two hits and scored two runs for Front Royal, which won for 12th time in its last 13 home games. Jesse Henry added two hits and two RBIs in his first appearance at the top of the order for the Cardinals, who are 12-2 in July.

"Anybody on a given night can do something on this team," McQuail said. "It's fun to watch."

Front Royal also made another smart move in its rotation, as Varner got his first start since July 3.

Things started rough, as Varner worked a few full-counts and walked three in the first two innings. But the right-hander stranded a runner in scoring position in each of the first four innings and finished strong. Varner (2-1) went six shutout innings, giving up just two hits, striking out four and retiring nine straight to finish his stint.

It was Varner's first win since beating Waynesboro on June 19.

"I came in and I was struggling to throw strikes," Varner said. "I just stayed back on my back leg. It's something I've been out with [pitching coach Jake Weghorst]. I started doing that and the rest of the game I didn't walk anybody. I was getting grounders and fly balls and my fielders behind me did a great job."

Scarano liked the effort he got from his spot starter.

"He has good stuff, he throws a heavy fastball, and he has a slider he can strike you out with," Scarano said. "His pitch count was kind of high because he wasn't as efficient as he needed to be. One of his goals as a pitcher is to be more efficient -- to pick up first strikes and get hitters out with less pitches."

Jeff DeCarlo came on at the start of the seventh and pitched into the ninth, only giving up a two-run homer to Michael Lang in the eighth. Ryan George finished up things in the ninth, getting his third save in four days, and sixth overall for the Cardinals.