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By John Nolan
Assistant Director of Scouting/Content Management 

Haymarket-A warm Tuesday night in Northern Virginia saw the No. 8 Battlefield Bobcats playing host to Centreville in the 6A North Region semifinals. Both teams had reached this game in 2015, with both coming up short and missing out on a trip to the State Tournament at Robinson. With only the winner capable of capturing a bid, both teams turned to their senior aces, Centreville going with lefty Carter Bach (Wake Forest) and Battlefield starting lefty Jake Agnos (East Carolina).

The story of this game would be pitching. Both starters threw perfect first innings, Agnos striking out two and Bach striking out one. Both showed that they had their best stuff, and this game would come down to which one of them made a mistake. For velocities and scouting information on Bach and Agnos, check the Virginia/DC Scout Blog.

Agnos added two more strikeouts in the top of the second as he worked another perfect inning. Bach got ahead of Battlefield first baseman Brady Harju quickly, but Harju was able to work the count back to full. Bach then left a pitch up over the inner third, and Harju deposited it over the leftfield fence for a solo home run, giving Battlefield a 1-0 lead. Bach responded by striking out the next three hitters and we moved to the third.

In the top of the third, Agnos, got his first two outs easily before surrendering his first hit of the game to senior Jonathan Norton, who hit Agnos in the foot with a line drive. Agnos appeared ok, and the inning ended when catcher Tyler Solomon (Vanderbilt) threw out Norton trying to steal. Bach worked a perfect third and we moved onto the fourth inning with the scores still 1-0.

Agnos added two more strikeouts in the top half of the fourth. In the bottom half, Bach issued a leadoff walk to Brent Boggs (VMI), got Solomon to ground out to first, moving the runner up, and then issued another walk to Harju, with ball four going to the screen and allowing Boggs to move up. With runners on the corners and one out, the Bobcats were looking for an insurance run. Bach was able to strike out Oakley Herrewig for his second out, and appeared to be in position to get out of the inning, but Battlefield ran a straight double steal, with both runners breaking on first movement. Bach picked to first, and Boggs was able to just slide in safely ahead of the throw home with Battlefield’s second run.

Trailing 2-0 headed to the fifth, Centreville needed to go to work figuring out Jake Agnos. Bach led the inning off with a single up the middle. After a strikeout, Cameron Edwards was hit by a pitch, putting two on with one out for the Wildcats. Agnos was able to get the next hitter to chop a ball to third baseman Brandon Austin, who made the smart play by stepping on third and firing to first for the double play to end the inning.

Bach tossed a perfect fifth, adding two more strikeouts to his total. Agnos responded with a perfect sixth, and three strikeouts. Bach threw a perfect sixth to send the game to the top of the seventh inning with Battlefield still leading, 2-0.

With the two, three, and four hitters due up for the Wildcats, they had the right part of the lineup coming up against Agnos. Agnos got a fly out to right and a strikeout for his first two outs. Bach lined a ball to right that appeared to be the third out, but it was dropped, and he hustled into second, bringing the tying run to the plate. Agnos found a little bit of extra velocity in his tank and got his thirteenth strikeout to end the game and punch Battlefield’s State Tournament ticket.

For Centreville, Bach went 6 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 2 BB, 8 K and 1-3 at the plate. Norton was 1-2.

For Battlefield, Agnos went CG, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 13 K and Harju went 1-1 with a HR and a BB.