Mother Nature intervenes in Martinsville:Daniel Frey on the CPL Trail

Mother Nature intervenes in Martinsville
from Daniel Frey with HPT HiToms Baseball…

Martinsville, Va.– The High Point Thomasville HiToms (29-24) fought through the rain but ultimately weather forced the game to end abruptly in the top of the ninth. Due to unplayable field conditions at Hooker Field, the Martinsville Mustangs (23-27) won the rain-shortened contest by a score of 3-2.

The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fifth on a Chandler Seagle groundball to third that was mishandled by Eric DeJesus for an error as the first run of the game crossed the plate. Ivan Acuna followed suit with an RBI double into right field and the next batter Brian Beard tacked on a run-scoring single through the right side. Immediately after the base hit the game went into a rain delay for roughly half an hour. The Mustangs did all of their damage with two outs to grab a 3-0 lead after five innings once play resumed.

Austin Reich (2-2) went five innings in his longest outing of the year, struck out three batters and was not aided by three HiTom errors.

Three HiToms were thrown out trying to steal second base and it hurt the HiToms scoring chances but in the top of the seventh an RBI groundout by David Sheaffer put the HiToms on the board. A wild pitch from the Mustangs starting pitcher John LaRossa (1-2) who tossed seven superb innings made it 3-2 Martinsville after seven complete.

Not quite done yet against the Mustangs closer Carter Varga, David Fry led off with a double down the first base line. Fry moved to third on a groundout by Hunter Slater as Danny Sullivan dug in at the plate. The weather returned with heavy rain and lightning as Sullivan had a 2-1 count forcing the second rain delay of the game in the top of the ninth.

Although Hooker Field has a turf infield, the outfield was ruled unplayable after excessive rain continued to pour down thus ending the game. After an agreement between both teams the game will not be finished since there is not enough time left in the season and a game is already being finished tomorrow at Finch Field between the two teams. Even though the ninth inning was underway and game was forced to revert back to the previous inning so it was officially called after eight complete innings. All statistics in the ninth inning do not count.

The HiToms finish the regular season against this very same Martinsville Mustangs club tomorrow starting at 4 p.m. with the conclusion of the game on July 8 in the bottom of the fourth inning with the HiToms trailing 2-1. After that contest there will be a seven-inning game to round out the doubleheader.