Rebels swept by Wranglers

By Dennis Atwood -- sports@nvdaily.com

NEW MARKET -- The Luray Wranglers and New Market Rebels have traded first place in the Central Division in the last two days and they entered a bit of a time warp in their Valley Baseball League engagement Tuesday night.

The Wranglers won the completion of a suspended game, 11-8, and took the regularly scheduled game, 9-6, to reclaim first place in the Central Division by 2 1/2 games over the Rebels.

Wrangler second baseman A.J. Wirnsberger went 5-for-9 in the two games with two doubles, three runs and two RBIs.

"It doesn't matter if I'm facing lefties or righties, I'm seeing [the ball] well this summer," Wirnsberger said. "I came out here this summer with goals, including hitting .320 or better, and I'm starting to reach those goals. We're peaking at the right time with playoffs coming. We're starting to get hot and doing a good job as a team."

First, the two teams reached back in time to resume play of their July 22 game, which was suspended by a heavy fog that rolled in quickly. The score was 8-8 at the completion of seven innings. It took 40 minutes to complete that game, which Luray won 11-8. All three Wrangler runs were unearned. Rebels shortstop Zak Messer committed an error in each inning.

Wrangler second baseman Jacob Wilson knocked an RBI single in the eighth. Alex Foltz and Garrett Wittles hit doubles in the ninth with Foltz scoring a run and Wittles getting an RBI.

D.J. Hicks pitched both innings for Luray and picked up the win to improve his record to 4-2. Jake Guengerich took the loss and fell to 1-2.

Luray continued its winning ways in the regular-scheduled game, extending its winning streak to three games and tagging New Market with its third straight loss.

The Wranglers scored in each of the first five innings to build an 8-2 lead on the strength of start Andy Moye's arm and the hot bats of four players who got two hits each.

Moye got the win to improve to 3-3 by completing six innings, giving up three runs on two hits and seven strikeouts. He struck of five batters in the last six outs ,but expended 30 pitches in the sixth to increase his count to 110, and was relieved by Vance Chavis.

"They start looking at you closer when you hit the 100-pitch mark, and I might need to be available in our last for games for relief," Moye said. "I'll be available for whatever the need me to do. My change-up was working really well, getting a lot of groundballs, and it bailed me out when I was behind in the count. Getting all the run support at the beginning lets you cruise some."

Foltz, who was 2-for-4 with his first homer, a two-run blast to left field, and Daniel Bowman also went 2-for-4, with a double and an RBI.

The Rebels mounted a rally in the bottom of the ninth, sending eight batters to the plate to notch three runs on four hits.

Zack Helgeson led off with a perfect bunt between the mound and third base line for a hit. Rightfielder Matt Townsend then bashed his third homer of the season, well over the right-center wall. George Carroll followed with a single. With one out, Kevin Rufus singled and Richard Gonzalez drew a walk.

Seth Kivett then drove a sac fly to deep center, allowing Carroll to score from third. Then Sanchez Gartman grounded out to end the surge.

"[Luray] hit ball really well, but in our defense, we put together an inning in the ninth via swing-away," New Market manager Lucas Jones said. "[Townsend] had a huge at bat for us and we cut the margin to four, but everything [Luray] hit was squared up. We made some decent pitches, but they just drove them, that's the bottom line."