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By John Nolan
Assistant Director of Scouting/Content Management 

Nokesville-St. Patrick’s day saw an interesting non-conference matchup between 6A North region foes Herndon and Patriot. Both teams sent good starters out to the mound, with senior righthander Austin Gerber (Radford) going for the Pioneers and junior righty Antonio Menendez (Wake Forest) starting for the Hornets. For velocities and scouting information on Gerber and Menendez, check the Virginia/DC Scout Blog.

Gerber worked efficiently in the first two innings, only allowing a single to Menendez while putting up a pair of zeroes. Menendez had to battle a bit more in the first two innings, having to work around a double by senior third basemen Sam Feliciano (Hampden Sydney) in the first and a bases loaded situation in the second as the game entered the third inning scoreless.

Sophomore rightfielder Jabbari Smith led off the top of the third with a swinging bunt single and after a wild pitch leftfielder Ryan Eisnaugle singled to center and advanced to second on a throw home. That brought up junior shortstop Austin Boynton, who promptly singled up the middle, driving in the first Hornet run. Menendez followed that up with a sacrifice fly to left, and Herndon opened up a 2-0 lead in the third.

Menendez settled in at this point, firing a perfect third and a scoreless fourth, with three strikeouts during those two innings and the lone baserunner coming on a base hit by Patriot junior leftfielder Chase DeGrood. Gerber fired a perfect fourth, with two strikeouts of his own.

The Herndon fifth started ominously with a Smith leadoff walk, which after a strikeout was followed by a Boynton double down the rightfield line, putting runners on second and third for senior third basemen Devin Vigneault, who singled to right and drove in both runners, making the score 4-0 Herndon.

Menendez worked around a couple of hit by pitches in the fifth and added two strikeouts in the sixth to protect the Hornet lead. Junior lefty Patrick Fyvie entered the game for Patriot in the sixth and worked two scoreless innings for the Pioneers, sending the game to the bottom of the seventh with the score Herndon 4, Patriot 0.

Austin Boynton came in to close for the Hornets and picked up a strikeout between singles by sophomore second basemen Jared Johnson and sophomore shortstop Hunter Meade. Junior centerfielder Jake Jansen then doubled to right center, driving in the Pioneers’ first run and bringing the tying run to the plate. Feliciano drew a walk to load the bases and senior rightfielder Addison Walker popped up on the infield, scoring one run and leaving runners on first and second in an interesting sequence of events. Senior first basement Grayson Gough then grounded out to Boynton to end the game, with a final score of Herndon 4, Patriot 2.

Menendez was the winning pitcher and his final line was 6 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 8 K, 3 BB, 2 HBP. Gerber took the loss and his line was 5 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 5 K, 1 BB. Boynton had a good day offensively for the Hornets, going 2-4 with a 2B and an RBI. Smith finished the game 1-2 with a BB and 2 R. DeGrood and Jansen led the Pioneer offense, DeGrood was 1-2 with a walk and Jansen was 1-4 with a 2B and 2 RBI. For scouting information on these hitters check out the Virginia/DC Scout Blog