Rockingham used a five-run sixth inning to overcome a 6-3 deficit to defeat Pittsylvania County 8-6 in the Bronco regional final Friday night at Civitan Park.
As winners of the regional, Rockingham has advanced to play in the Bronco Zone starting Friday at Bergen Beach, N.Y. Rockingham held off a late surge in the first game to edge out Pittsylvania 7-6 to force the deciding contest.
"The kids were resilient in both games and they responded to the challenge," Rockingham coach Jeff Ingram said. "We got great pitching and we played solid on defense. I'm proud of them and I just hope we can put on a good show in New York."
With the score tied at 3 going into the fourth, Pittsylvania scored a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth to take a 6-3 lead into the top of the sixth.
But Rockingham rallied from the three-run deficit.
Montek Johnson drew a leadoff walk off Pittsylvania's starter Rand Gibson and later stole second. Gibson walked Brandon Ingram, placing runners on first and second with no outs. A double steal moved the runners to second and third and Joe Butler drew the third walk off Gibson to load the bases.
Joseph Griffith's sacrifice fly to right field scored Johnson, cutting Pittsylvania's lead to 6-4. With one out and runners on first and second, Cross Holfert ripped a double to center field that scored Ingram, trimming Pittsylvania?s advantage to 6-5.
Pinch runner Cody Coburn advanced to third on the play and Evan Spears' squeeze bunt scored Coburn to even the contest at 6, while Holfert moved to third. Pittsylvania committed an error to give Rockingham a
7-6 lead, when Will Lewis' errant throw to first on Cody Leviner's ground ball sailed over to the fence, allowing Holfert to score and Leviner to reach second.
Gibson was relieved by Trevor Powell, whose wild pitch moved Leviner to third. Ethan Baucom, who was 2-for-3 with two runs batted
in, drove in Leviner on a single to center field to extend Rockingham's lead to 8-6.
"I told them to hang in there and I knew we could get to their starting pitcher," Ingram said. "We had to keep from just trying to do
it all at one time, but we just chipped away. We were able to get some momentum going and found a way to get ahead."
In the bottom of the sixth, Pittsylvania?s Gavin Payne drew a leadoff walk off Coburn, who was Rockingham's third pitcher of the game.
Payne later advanced to second on a wild pitch, but Coburn struck out Trevor Powell for the first out. But Justin Moser ripped a one-out double to left field, putting runners
on second and third. But like the 6-3 victory against Great Neck when Coburn was able to work himself out of a jam in the seventh inning to earn the save, he did the same thing against Pittsylvania.
Coburn struck out the next batter, Hunter Goad for the second out and coaxed Ryan Tomlinson to ground out for the third out of the inning. In the seventh, Coburn retired the side, striking out the final batter, Dillon Wray, giving Rockingham the regional title.
In the first game, Leviner and John Taylor both slugged home runs to help Rockingham defeat Pittsylvania 7-6.
Leviner's three-run homer in the fourth inning broke a 2-2 tie to give Rockingham a 5-2 lead. Taylor crushed a two-run homer in the third inning to tie the game up at 2.
Rockingham led 7-2 going into the bottom of the seventh before Pittsylvania rallied to score four runs, but Rockingham was able to
hold off the late charge to win the contest and force the deciding game.
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