A Devil of a game

By ANDREW STEVENS
Bulletin Sports Writer

The Martinsville Mustangs' offense got off to a slow start on Wednesday night, but boy did they finish strong. After his club was held without a hit until the fifth inning, Hans Stancil's towering two-run homer in the eighth helped the 'Stangs complete a 5-2 come-from-behind victory over the Outer Banks Daredevils at Hooker Field.

After falling behind 2-0 in the top of the fifth, the Mustangs scored a run in both the sixth and seventh innings, setting up Stancil's dramatic eighth inning blast. The second baseman's Georgia College and State University teammate Justin Mills led off the home half of the eighth with a double, before Stancil drove Outer Banks reliever Gerard Breslin's 0-2 offering deep into the Martinsville night. The homer was Stancil's second of the season which tied him with Josh Paul for the team lead, and it was also the club's fifth long ball of the year.

"You never really think about hitting a home run," Stancil said. "With a runner on third the infield was in, so I was just looking to hit something in the air or trying to hit something hard in the outfield. He (Breslin) left a fastball up, it was 0-2 (count) so I think he meant to get it out of the zone up, and I think he just left it too far down. I got on top of it."

Jamie Ray's single later in the inning drove home Paul who had reached base on a walk, completing the Mustangs scoring.

On a muggy night at Hooker Field, things got even hotter on the diamond as what started as a few hit batters escalated into a series of confrontations.

Martinsville starting shortstop Steve Condotta was hit in the face by a pitch from Outer Banks starter Jared Koon in the sixth inning, which put Condotta down on the field for several minutes. The shortstop did leave the game under his own power with the aid of EMTs and was taken to Memorial Hospital for further examinations.

After seeing Condotta take a pitch off his face, Stancil and his Mustangs teammates found all the motivation they needed for a rally.

"I know the pitcher didn't mean to do it," Stancil said. "He (Koon) was up and in all night, he was wild all night. He hit a few people. It's a tough spot...we just wanted to win the game for him (Condotta)."

Condotta became the second Mustang hit of the evening, equaling the tally for both clubs up to that point. However, in the top half of the eighth inning, Daredevils catcher Jeffrey Wertepny was awarded first base after he appeared to blatantly stick out his arm to be hit by a pitch.

Mustangs Head Coach Rob Watt and Outer Banks skipper Ted Tom were both called to home plate later in the inning by home plate umpire Steven Webber. Things quickly became heated, and Watt was eventually ejected from the game by field umpire Greg Howard.

"Anytime one of your players goes down and gets injured it's going to strike a nerve," Watt said. "I don't believe they were throwing at our guys by any means, especially not in that situation. We had runners on and stuff like that."

Travis Pyatt (3-0) picked up the win for Martinsville, working 7 2/3 innings, allowing two runs (none earned on eight hits), while striking out seven and walking one. Koon (1-1) suffered the loss for Outer Banks allowing three runs on five hits while fanning five and walking one.

Following a win in which his team struggled to produce offensively for the better part of the game, Watt was certainly pleased with his team's ability to pull one out.

"They resilient and they don't think they can lose," Watt said. "They're good baseball players, they really come to the ballpark and I guess the perfect way to say it is they just refuse to lose."