DCC baseball falls in conference tournament championship

By Jason Wolf
Danville Register & Bee
Published: May 5, 2008

There was something unsettling about the way Wade Johnson was acting at practice on Thursday, and his downtrodden demeanor drew the attention of his players.

“The guys were like, ‘Coach, what’s the matter? You’re kind of solemn,’” the Rappahannock Community College manager recalled.

“Well, I’m 64 and I knew that would be the last time I threw BP — and the last practice,” he said, choking up after his players celebrated by dousing him with the water cooler. “The game’s been real special.”

Johnson went out on top. Rappahannock breezed to a 17-1 victory in five innings against Danville Community College for the Virginia Community College System Conference tournament championship Sunday at Dan Daniel Park, allowing the retiring Gulls manager to walk off the field with his seventh title in 21 years.

DCC, which lost to Patrick Henry on the first day of the tournament and clawed its way back through the losers’ bracket to face Rappahannock (27-4), would have needed to defeat the Gulls twice to claim the title. The two-time defending conference champion Knights were clearly spent, however, after a 5-4 victory against rival Patrick Henry (39-20) earlier in the day — a win that propelled DCC (34-22) into its seventh consecutive VCCS tournament title game.

“Wade Johnson … and I made a pact before this tournament started that if there was anything humanly possible that could be done to keep Patrick Henry out of this championship game, we were going to try, between the two of us, to do it,” DCC manager John Bailey said. “And we accomplished that goal. And that is sweet victory to me.”

This season was Patrick Henry’s last before officially becoming a junior college program. Unlike the rest of the VCCS schools, which must rely on local players, Patrick Henry was able to recruit players from as far away as Michigan, Maine and Connecticut this year. DCC can only recruit players from Danville, Pittsylvania County and Halifax County unless a player expresses interest by contacting the school first.

“On paper, they’re supposed to walk through this thing. ... They’ve got (32) kids,” Bailey said. “They’re going JUCO next year. And here we are with a community college, we can’t recruit like they can. To get them out of it and we finish first and second, that’s just as sweet as winning the championship.”

Thanks in part to a pair of Patrick Henry errors, the Knights rallied from an early 2-1 deficit with four runs in the fifth inning, then survived a couple of their own errors and a two-run Patriots burst in the sixth to hang on for the 5-4 victory and advance to the title game.

Herbie Williams and Wesley Francis each smacked a pair of base hits in the victory and scored in the decisive fifth inning. Chris Martin scored on an error after reaching base with a double and Lea Turner, who picked up the victory by scattering nine hits in a complete-game effort, scored the winning run on a David Hudson double. Williams scored DCC’s first run after roping a leadoff triple to center in the first inning.

Four Patrick Henry players finished with multiple hits, including Jesse Morrison, who scored twice and hit a double. Josh Davidson, Jeremy Sprague and Jordan Rea each added extra-base hits for the Patriots.

While opposing players began shaking hands and exchanging hugs after the game, words were exchanged between coaches and a large, vocal Patrick Henry assistant coach was restrained after stalking toward DCC’s dugout with an aluminum bat in hand.

“In the Patrick Henry game, we left a lot of heart and a lot of emotion and a lot of energy on that field,” Bailey said.

The Knights had nothing left for Rappahannock.

Three DCC pitchers saw action in the first two innings against the Gulls, whose advantage quickly ballooned to 14-0.

Francis took the loss after surrendering seven runs, four of them earned, in a single inning on the mound. He allowed one hit, issued four walks and was pulled after facing two batters in the second. Dallas Wagner didn’t fare much better, as he was tagged for seven runs on six hits in two-thirds of an inning.

“We ran out of pitching,” Francis said, bluntly. “We got in the losing bracket and we played five games. We only have but 12 people, and not everybody pitches … We had to win two games yesterday and we had to win the first game today just to get here.”

Every Rappahannock starter scored at least once, four finished with multiple hits and five collected multiple RBIs.

Dustin Felvus scored three times despite failing to record a hit and Josh Tuck scored twice after being hit by a pitch in consecutive innings.

Rappahannock players stormed the mound in celebration, tackling winning pitcher Mike Newton after the final out.

“It’s mixed feelings,” Johnson said before leaving the field for the final time. “I enjoy working with young men, seeing them change, that maturation process of when they go from boy to man… Of all the teams I’ve had, this team was special from the beginning. The skill’s always been there, but I knew this team, if they maintained what they were doing, it’d be a special season.

“And they concluded it.”