Dragons finish in a draw with Page

By Jeremy Knight Special Correspondent
Published: March 31, 2008

On Monday, March 24, the William Monroe Varsity Dragons baseball team faced off against Page County in a seven-inning thriller that ended with a score of 4-4. 
The game was originally scheduled for Thursday March 20th, but was rained out and moved to Monday.
In the first meeting between the two teams earlier this month the Dragons defeated Page 5-0.
The first inning began with a bang for Page as they scored three runs off Monroe pitcher Aaron Shifflett. After a walk to start off the game, Page quickly jumped on top with a two-run homer—and would add another run later in the inning.
First-year varsity coach Mark Arrington quickly went to his bullpen by switching in Mitchell Morris to pitch and stop the Page threat in the first.
Page would follow up their run scoring first inning with adding their fourth run of the game in the second inning. This would be the last run that Page would score due to good relief pitching by Mitchell Morris, Jeremy Breeden and Danny Morris.
Monroe finally got on the board in the third inning when Henry Morris led off the inning with a double. He would later score on an rbi (run batted in) single by Shane Racer.
The Dragons had another opportunity to put some runs on the board in the fourth inning after two back-to-back singles by Breeden and Eric Utz. But the chance came to a screeching halt when a line drive hit to second ended up turning into a double play, ending the inning and the scoring threat.
Good hitting for Monroe would continue in the fifth inning. With one out, Bruce Shifflett singled and then the very next batter, Danny Morris, knocked a two run homer and made the score 4-3 in favor of Page.
In the same inning Racer would get his second hit by nailing a double to left center field. But he would remain stranded on base and not score.
After great pitching, the Dragons entered the seventh and final inning down just a run. Monroe was down to their last out, when Danny Morris drew a walk. Racer then singled to right center and Morris advanced to third. The next batter Shannon Estes had the biggest hit of the game when he singled and knocked in Morris to tie the game at four.
With such an exciting ending, there would be no extra innings in this one, due to darkness leaving the fans and teams wanting more.
The Dragons out-hit Page 12 to 6 but was unable to cash in on more runs by leaving six base runners stranded. Leading Monroe in this one with three hits was Shane Racer. Bruce Shifflett had two and Jason Nave, Danny Morris, Henry Morris, Eric Utz, Shannon Estes, Troy Legg, and Jeremy Breeden all had a hit.
Leading the team in rbi’s was Danny Morris with two. Racer and Estes both had one.
After the game coach Arrington had nothing but great things to say about his team. “Tonight our team had a lot of resiliency. With that, we were able to bounce back after getting down early.”
When asked about the pitching coach said, “We kept our composure and Mitchell Morris along with Jeremy Breeden, did a great job in relief.”
The Dragons’ record improves to 1-2-1. At press time, the Dragons were preparing for a home game against Madison on Tuesday March 25. Then on the very next night they would travel to Spotswood for a showdown with the Trailblazers.