Front Royal holds off Winchester

By Jerry Holsworth -- sports@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- Front Royal got a pair of solo homers from Jared Simon and another from Stephen McQuail, then fought off a late-inning rally to defeat Winchester, 4-3, on Sunday in the Royals' VBL home opener.

"We came back late, and that may be how it's going to be for a while," Winchester manager John Lowery said. "Our guys have been off for a while and they haven't swung the bat much. But it's going to be a long season."

With the exception of Simon and McQuail, and Winchester's Bobby Rauh, the game was dominated by pitching and defense. Front Royal starting pitcher Greg Van Sickler benefited from outstanding defensive play by his infielders all night.

"Our infield has been solid since the first day," Van Sickler said. "It's great to know that when there's a ball on the ground the guys behind me are going to turn it into an out. That takes a big load off my shoulders."

Until the ninth inning, Van Sickler had faced just 26 batters, just two short of the minimum. All but seven of those outs came from Front Royal's defensive gems.

"We made several good plays last night too," Front Royal coach Joe Scarano said. "They're a really good defensive group. All four of our infielders are really solid."

The Royals had their share of defensive gems too, and one of them kept the Cardinals from jumping ahead early in the game. With two outs in the top of the first, and Doug Oney on second for the Cardinals, Simon launched a long single to deep right. Winchester rightfielder Ben Hammer, however, snagged the ball and threw a perfect strike to catcher Kevin Griffin to get Oney out at the plate to end the inning.

"I do a pretty good job on plays like that," Hammer said. "I actually like being in situations like that. It's exciting and I know that I have the arm to make the play."

Although the Royals were able to match the Cardinals on defense, Front Royal used the long ball to take the lead and build on it. Simon got his first homer on a towering drive over the leftfield fence to put Front Royal up 1-0 in the top of the fourth.

He repeated the feat on his next trip to the plate in the sixth, this time sending a pitch over the fence in left-centerfield to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

"I was seeing ball well today," Simon said. "I hit it solid every time I was up. I wasn't trying to overdo it though. I was just trying to hit it solidly."

The Cardinals added a runs in the seventh on a RBI single to right by Buddy Sosnoskie, and in the eighth on a solo homer by McQuail.

Van Sickler, a James Wood graduate and Shenandoah University hurler, was almost flawless through eight innings. He allowed three runs on five hits and struck out seven without a walk.

"I thought that it was a little ironic that I'm a hometown kid pitching against my hometown team," Van Sickler said. "I grew up thinking about pitching for the Royals and here I am pitching against them."

Three of those hits and all of the runs came from the first three Winchester batters in the ninth. Kevin Garcia and Michael Vargas led off the bottom of the ninth with back-to-back singles. Rauh followed that with a homer that narrowed the Front Royal lead to 4-3.

Scarano immediately took Van Sickler out after Rauh homered, and reliever Ryan George was able to get the next three outs to stop the Winchester rally.

Adam Adkins started for the Royals before being relieved by Stephen Rivera. Adkins, who took the loss, gave up three runs on one hit. He struck out seven and walked four.