Midlo Post 186's offensive explosion wipes out Post 201

After Mark Mitchell and his assistant coaches held tryouts last month, for the Midlothian Post 186 American Legion baseball team, they figured they had enough pitching and defense to compete for the District 11 title. But they still had serious questions about their offense.

Go figure.

Fifteen games into the 2010 season, Post 186 is swinging the bat as well as any team in the area -- a trend that continued Thursday in a 13-9 victory over Powhatan Post 201.

“When we get hot, there’s no stopping us,” Midlothian outfielder Jim Cain said.

That was certainly the case in the bottom of the sixth inning on a seasonably steamy evening at Rockwood Park. Trailing 6-5, Midlothian sent 11 batters to the plate and produced eight runs on seven hits.

Remarkably, Post 186 (11-4) scored all eight runs with two outs.

Powhatan reliever Kurt Van Ness made a terrific pitch to retire John Gunst on a harmless fly ball to shortstop Doug Jamerson with one out and runners on first and third. But his next effort, a curveball, bounced away from catcher Zack Lucas and Jalen Carter sprinted home to tie the game at 6.

An intentional walk to Cory Tuzzo and Corey Bastaich’s single loaded the bases, then Scott Poe, Michael McCullum and James Wilkerson followed with run-scoring hits as Post 186 built a 10-6 lead.

Cain put the finishing touches on Midlothian’s big inning, by blasting a Van Ness fastball over the fence in left-center for a three-run homer.

“It’s contagious,” Mitchell said of his team’s offensive exploits. “Once we start hitting, everybody follows up and keeps it going. We‘ve been able to capitalize on that.”

It was the third long ball surrendered by Powhatan High School’s former pitching ace in two innings; like the other two, it came on a belt-high fastball that caught way too much of the plate.

“He left one up and I just took it,” Cain added. “The funny thing is, he made me look silly on a curveball and I never saw it again.”

Midlothian’s offensive explosion wiped out a fast start by Post 201, which got a solo homer from centerfielder Tyler Allen in the first inning and led 4-0 before Post 186 got on the board with two runs in the bottom of the third.

Powhatan carried a 4-2 lead into the fifth, when Tuzzo followed Gunst’s long double into the left-center gap with an even longer game-tying two-run homer. Two batters later, McCullum added a solo shot against Van Ness to give Post 186 its first lead.

Powhatan, however, went right back ahead 6-5 in the top of the sixth on Allen’s RBI double and a run-scoring single by Lucas.

And even after Midlothian broke the game open with its eight-run inning, Powhatan didn’t go quietly. Zack Patrick drilled a two-run homer in the seventh and Post 201 added an unearned run in the eighth to draw within 13-9.

Mitchell acknowledged that Powhatan’s ability to produce runs in bunches prevented him from breathing easily until McCullum closed out the victory by pitching a scoreless ninth.

“You can never be comfortable in this league. There are too many good hitters and teams can put up six or seven runs pretty quickly,” he added. “We’ve had teams do it to us and we’ve done it several times.”