Louisa County Varsity baseball added another no-hitter to the season when Lliam Grubbs threw his first of the season against the Midlothian Trojans Thursday night during regional play. Junior, Cam Furman started on the mound for the Trojans.
Baylor Cumbea led off the top of the first inning for Midlothian, flying out to the right fielder. Christian Chambers followed with a ground ball to the second baseman to give the Lions two quick outs. Grubbs recorded his first strikeout of the game on a dropped third strike to Tyler Moore to end the inning. Austin Nicholas led off for the Lions in the bottom half of the first with a swinging strikeout. Matt West followed with a hard line drive hit directly to the center fielder. Furman recorded his second strikeout of the game after Grubbs went down swinging for the third out.
Grubbs gave up a leadoff walk to Logan Smith to begin the top half of the second. Courtesy runner, Layne Pigford was thrown out on a steal attempt by catcher, Garrett Duerson. Grubbs recorded back-to-back strikeouts to end the second, his third off the game. Jack McDonald led off the bottom of the second with a walk and reached third after an error by the shortstop. Tristan Snyder followed with a ground out to the shortstop for the first out. Back-to-back strikeouts to Tyler Earley and Duerson ended the second, stranding McDonald.
Dylan Carson led off the top of the third for the Trojans with a flyout to the center fielder. Reed Boettner reached on an error and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Carter Lovasz. Cumbea went down swinging for the third out of the inning. J.B Lamb led off for the Lions in the bottom of the third, flying out to the right fielder. Nicholas reached first after being hit by a pitch, advancing to second after a bunt single from West. Both Nicholas and West scored after a fielder’s choice from McDonald, giving Louisa a 2-0 lead over Midlothian in the third. Grubbs and Duerson were also caught in fielder's choices to record two more outs. “I went in wanting to throw strikes,” said Furman. “I gave up two runs, and that wasn’t the plan.”
West recorded the first out of the fourth inning after a beautiful diving catch to keep Grubbs’ no-hitter alive. Grubbs recorded his fifth and sixth strikeouts after Moore and Smith went down swinging. Furman recorded his second 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fourth, recording two pop outs and a groundout.
Furman led off for the Trojans in the top half of the fifth, grounding out to the second baseman. Grubbs once again recorded two strikeouts in the inning, retiring Evan Heine and Carson. Lamb led off the bottom of the fifth for Louisa, flying out to the left fielder. Nicholas reached first on an error, followed by a stolen base. Nicholas was stranded in scoring position after a pop out ended the inning.
Boettner and Lovasz both went down looking to begin the top of the sixth. Cumbea grounded out to the shortstop to end the quick inning. McDonald and Snyder both struck out looking to record two quick outs in the bottom of the sixth. Earley drew a walk and stole second to give Louisa another base runner in scoring position, however, Duerson grounded out, stranding Earley and keeping the Louisa lead at 2-0.
Chambers flew out to the left fielder to begin the top of the seventh, followed by a Moore hitting a line out to the shortstop. Grubbs only needed one more out to secure the no-hitter. Smith went down looking to secure a Louisa win and the fourth no-hitter of the season for the team.
Grubbs finished the game with just one walk and eleven strikeouts. “We needed to come out and show everyone that we’re capable of beating anybody,” said Grubbs. “It shows how much we care. We want to be here, we wanna win. That’s all we want to do for Louisa.”
The win moves the Lions further into postseason play. Louisa is now set to face Dinwiddie on Tuesday night at Bradford-Pelot field. “Just one game at a time,” said Coach Kevin Fisher. “That’s all you can do at this point in the year. Just keep showing up, playing hard, and seeing what happens.” Let’s go Lions!
