Baseball (and softball, too) are the worst prep tournament sports by far, mainly because most Virginia High School League tournaments use a single-elimination format which poorly suits the sport’s premium on consistency.
Yet there is a certain amount of magic to be found in a team that makes a postseason tournament run and advances farther than anyone predicts.
Such is the case for Abingdon’s baseball team, which will try to reach the Group AA semifinals in about two hours tonight against Region III runnerup Waynesboro.
While the Falcons finished the regular season strong and earned the No. 2 seed for the Southwest District Tournament, there were no great expectations for this team, not even after they nearly upset then-unbeaten Richlands in the SWD tourney finals.
But that game, which was decided on a rare error by senior shortstop Justin Malone, who has just two boots in 26 games, clearly showed Abingdon’s improvement. Richlands walloped the Falcons 10-1 and 9-2 in previous matchups.
Still, the Falcons’ Region IV chances looked slim at best ... until Blacksburg opened up a Tunstall-sized hole in Abingdon’s half of the bracket by ending the Trojans’ 58-game home winning streak in the regional quarterfinals.
That not only gave the Falcons a better matchup in the semifinals, but also rid them of having to play on the opponents’ home field, since Tunstall was scheduled to host the semis and finals. Given a level playing field and a lesser (though still capable) opponent, Abingdon belted Blacksburg 11-2.
Which brings us to Friday’s epic regional title game with Hidden Valley. In a 3-hour, 34-minute slugfest that featured 21 runs, 25 hits, 17 walks, five hit batters and 375 pitches (but amazingly, just one error, which was on the game’s first play), Abingdon won 11-10.
Now to the premise of this blog post—can the Falcons keep flying? Baseball being baseball, and single-elimination tournaments being single-elimination tournaments, you never know.
But ace Justin Malone and his 90-plus mile per hour heat are fully rested. Waynesboro is making a four-hour bus ride down I-64 and 81. And a huge home crowd is expected.
So the scales would seem to be tilted in Abingdon’s advantage. If they keep playing as they have over the last 20 games, in which the Falcons are 17-3, it’s going to be hard for any Group AA team to beat them tonight at home.