Skip to content
ABINGDON, Va. – The Mountain 7 District baseball tournament championship featured a prime-time matchup and a late finish at Falcon Park.
In a battle of Washington County rivals before an overflow crowd Thursday, the Abingdon Falcons downed the John Battle Trojans 5-3.
The game did not start until 9:07 p.m. due to a marathon third-place game and did not end until 11:09.
The all-Washington County showdown featured a battle of polished sophomore left-handers in Beckett Dotson from Abingdon and Evan Hankins from John Battle.
Dotson recorded eight strikeouts through five innings and combined with Jett Humphreys on a five-hitter. Humphreys recorded a game-ending strikeout that elicited a cheer from the large and enthusiastic crowd.
“Great atmosphere,” said Abingdon coach Mark Francisco. “Hankins threw extremely well. I’m just proud of our kids for finding a way to get it done. It was a well-played game and I thought it was good for both teams we move on to the postseason. It was a good environment.”
People are also reading…
Hankins also pitched into the sixth inning and combined with sophomore Porter Gobble on a four-hitter. Battle was hurt by two errors.
AHS (18-4) took a 1-0 lead in the second inning as senior Landon Greer walked and sophomore Daniel Fellhauer followed with a run-scoring triple.
The Trojans (17-7) grabbed a 2-1 lead in the third inning on a Hankins double and run-scoring groundout from senior Ryan Mix.
Abingdon answered with two runs in the bottom of the third as freshman Aidan Woods plated Jack Ferguson with a double. Woods scored on the same sequence via a throwing error by the catcher.
John Battle tied the score at 3-3 in the fourth inning on a run-scoring single from Gobble.
Elijah Parks reached in the fifth for AHS after getting hit by a pitch and Ferguson followed with his third walk of the game. Parks moved to third on a long fly out to center by Humphreys, and then scored when Dotson advanced on a throwing error by the shortstop.
Humphreys, who entered the night with an 8-2 record and 1.07 ERA, recorded three strikeouts with no hits. The Humphreys fastball was a big contrast to the looping curves thrown by Dotson.
The Falcons went up 5-3 in the sixth when Nick Marshall scored on an attempted double steal attempt.
Battle placed a runner on second base in the seventh inning, but Humphreys ended the suspense with another strikeout on a fastball.
“Nothing but positives,” Francisco said. “It was a good night. I’ll take it.”
Fellhauer led AHS with two hits, while Hankins paced Battle with two hits
Versatile junior Jackson Gayle did not play for John Battle.
Abingdon has won 74 straight games against Mountain 7 District opponents, with the last setback coming against Union in 2014.
John Battle has not defeated AHS since April 3, 2014 when pitchers Matt Cunningham and Matt Sullivan combined on a three-hitter in a 5-0 win for the Trojans. Current Abingdon assistant coach Andrew Francisco was a junior second baseman on that AHS team.
AHS went 3-0 against John Battle this season. John Battle boss Jimmy Gobble said he felt the Trojans were a better team after the initial meeting between the squads.
“I have to eat crow,” Gobble said. “I like our talent, but obviously Abingdon’s better. The better team won and they’re better coached.”
Battle has not lost to a Class 2 opponent this season and will be the Mountain District’s top seed in the Region 2D tournament. The Trojans will host a first-round game as well as the semifinals and finals.
“We have to do a better job as coaches to put our kids in position to achieve certain things and we didn’t achieve this goal,” Gobble said. “We still get to chase things. It’s up to us as coaches to keep chipping away and working diligently to help these kids out and have some [Class 2] success.”
Abingdon, which has five seniors, will be the second seed in the Region 3D tournament and will host a game next Friday at Falcon Park.
“Our region’s tough,” Francisco said. “We’ll have to play well.”
John Battle defeated Abingdon 7-4 in Thursday’s junior varsity title game as gifted freshman left-hander Hayden Reed starred on the mound for Battle. The 6-foot-1 eighth-grader recently made a verbal commitment to play baseball at Virginia Tech.
