Seventh heaven: Royals win again

By Jerry Holsworth -- sports@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- Right-handed pitcher Jorge Madsen took the mound to begin the fifth and gave the Winchester Royals five quality innings of relief to help lead the team to its seventh win in as many games.

Thursday night's victim was Waynesboro, who fell to Winchester, 6-2, at Bridgeforth Field.

"This is a good time to be playing well," Royals manager John Lowery Jr. said. "Everybody understands their role, and the guys are getting quality at-bats. But as much as anything our pitching has solidified. We're really excited about the way we're playing. Each of our players has steadily improved as the season has progressed."

Winchester starter Adam Adkins looked as though he was going to have little trouble getting the Generals out early in the game. The Tennessee freshman struck out three of the first five batters he faced. But with two outs in the top of the second, Adkins lost his control, walking six of the next 10 batters. The result was a two-run third that saw nine Waynesboro batters come to the plate.

Madsen relieved Adkins and completely shut down the Generals batters. The Florida International sophomore faced the minimum number of batters in all but the sixth inning and struck out eight without a walk through five scoreless innings on the mound.

"Madsen just had a beautiful performance," Lowery said. "He told me before the game that it didn't matter when or where, he just wanted to pitch. He pitched great and got himself a win."

While Madsen was retiring Generals batters, Winchester's offense produced runs in the second, third, sixth and eighth innings.

Gabe Ortiz led off the second with a single up the middle, then scored on a ground out to second by Ben Hammer.

In the third, Aaron Dudley led off with a walk and then scored off a single to center by Jordan Steranka.

With the game tied 2-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Brad Zapenas scored Hammer with a single to right-centerfield for the go-ahead run.

After giving up a five-run lead in the ninth to Covington last week, Winchester was in no mood to let this game slip away. Ortiz and Timmy Frost led off the bottom of the eighth with singles. Hammer drove them both in with a towering triple to the left-centerfield fence.

Hammer, who finished the night 2-for-4 at the plate with three RBIs, scored later in the inning off a sacrifice fly to center by Zapenas.

Madsen did the rest, striking out two General batters in the ninth and getting the final batter, Cory Kovanda, to fly out to right.

Waynesboro starting pitcher Mike Hernandez took the loss, allowing three runs on eight hits through five and two-thirds innings on the mound.

Besides Hammer, Zepenas was 2-for-3 at the plate with a pair of RBIs, and Ortiz went 2-for-4 and scored two runs.

"We're still taking quality at bats and scoring runs," Lowery said. "We got some runs late this time too. Hopefully, we can keep this going."