Post 330 advances in district tourney

By Shane Mettlen

Published: July 23, 2008

Culpeper Post 330 had seen quite a bit of North Rockingham this summer even before Wednesday afternoon’s opening round game of the District 16 American Legion baseball playoffs. But despite the familiarity it took Culpeper a little while to get used to North Rockingham’s left-handed pitcher, Logan Arey.

Arey held Post 330 in check the first time through the lineup, but Culpeper figured out the opposing starter and rallied for a 5-4 victory to advance to the double-elimination round of the tournament and beat North Rockingham for the third time in four tries. Culpeper will play at Front Royal tonight at 7 p.m.

“We haven’t faced many lefties,” Culpeper manager Jeff Crane said. “We faced him for a few innings when we beat them on Saturday, so we had a little insight into him.

But I thought we hit him better after the first round of batters went through and they started picking the ball up better and making some nice timely base hits.”

Arey pitched seven innings, allowed five runs on six hits and struck out seven. North Rockingham had a 4-0 lead by the time Post 330 came to bat in the bottom of the third. But three of Arey’s seven strikeouts came in the first and by the third inning Culpeper was able to get its offense going.

Shortstop Brandon Scott drove in a run with a triple in the third and later came around to score to help Post 330 cut the lead in half. From there Culpeper’s Joey Powell took the mound in relief of starter Brian Thompson and shut down the North Rockingham offense. Powell pitched six no-hit innings to pick up the win, striking out five and walking just two.

“Joey’s what I call a gutsy player,” Crane said. “He came in and did a great job for us. He pretty much shut them down. You keep in the back of your mind you want to save your pitching because you have to play the next day and he did a good job.”

Culpeper added another run in the fourth then tied the game in the fifth after a double by Scott, who later scored on third baseman Brandon Mack’s second RBI of the game. Powell helped his own cause with a single in the fifth. He then stole two bases and scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly from Ethan Russell.

“Personally, I don’t like facing lefties,” Scott said. “The ball cuts and does some stupid stuff. But I liked seeing him a second time and seeing where his fastball and curve ball where and recognizing his pitches.”

Russell, a left-handed hitter who was a late addition to the lineup to face Arey, finished the game 2 for 3 with a pair of RBI. Second baseman John Sicliano led North Rockingham, which tied Culpeper for eighth in the district regular season, with two singles and a pair of runs batted in.

Now Culpeper moves on, hoping it can stay hot and advance out of the district tournament and onto states.

“We were down and we came back,” Crane said. “This team has done that several times and they can do it. They can always come back.”

Shane Mettlen can be reached at 825-0771, ext. 127 or