Royals rebound by splitting two

By Ben Brooks -- sports@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- Victimized by walk-offs the last two nights, the Winchester Royals used a little late-game magic of their own Wednesday night to edge North Division rival Fauquier 6-5 in the first game of a Valley Baseball League doubleheader at Bridgeforth Field.

Switch-hitting Kevin Garcia, batting from the left side for the first time in the game, lined the first pitch he saw from Gators reliever Eric Deese into centerfield to score pinch-runner Ben Hammer with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Garcia, who prior to the game-winner was 0-for-3, said he was guessing change-up all the way and got what he wanted from Deese.

"He got me out with change-ups a couple times earlier this year," said the leftfielder, who along with the rest of his Winchester teammates wore pink T-shirts to raise awareness for breast cancer. "I wasn't trying to do too much with it, just put it in play."

The victory assured Winchester of no worse than a tie for second place in the North. The top two teams in each of the VBL's three divisions qualify for the playoffs, as well as the two remaining teams with the best records.

Fauquier (21-21) kept its postseason hopes alive by rebounding with a 6-0 victory over the Royals in Wednesday's nightcap.

"Being in already is nice," said Royals manager John Lowery Jr., whose team finishes out the regular season with home games tonight against Haymarket and Friday against Front Royal. "It gives us an opportunity to get our pitching in line for the playoffs."

Winchester's seventh-inning rally started with Jordan Steranka's one-out double to the centerfield fence. That set the stage for Garcia's heroics.

The Royals (23-19) played catch-up throughout most of the first game. They chipped away at a 5-2 deficit with a pair of runs in the fourth on RBIs from Timmy Cross and Gabriel Ortiz and one in the sixth on Ortiz's run-scoring bloop single into right-center that tied it at 5-5.

"We don't panic," Garcia said. "We just keep playing through it. You just got to keep coming back."

Giving the Royals the opportunity to rally was relief pitcher Brett Stackhouse (4-2), who was near perfect over 3 1/3 innings. Stackhouse, who will leave the team later this week because of an illness in his family, didn't allow a hit. He struck out six and walked just one.

Fauquier broke open a 2-2 deadlock with three runs in the top of the fourth on Ryan Gauck's solo homer down the rightfield line, Chris Love's RBI single, and Justin Wilson's run-scoring single that chased Winchester starting pitcher Adam Adkins.

In the second game, Fauquier rode the pitching of Jack VanLeur. The junior lefty from Creighton tossed a complete-game, four-hit gem. Making his 15th appearance of the summer but just his third start, VanLeur (3-2) struck out eight and didn't walk a batter. The shutout loss was just the second of the summer for the Royals, who entered the game with the league's second-best team batting average (.296).

The Gators scored one run in the second and then batted around against Royals starting pitcher Corey Williams (3-3) in a five-run third, highlighted by RBI singles from Ben Burgess, Ian Dike, and Chad Oberacker.