By Jeremy Knight, Special Correspondent
Published: May 8, 2008

On Tuesday April 29th the William Monroe Dragons varsity baseball team traveled to Crozet to face the Western Albemarle Warriors.
Monroe came into this game with just two district wins so far this season.
This game started off rather quickly for both teams. Although neither team got anything going in the first inning, the Dragons got things going in the second with the first two runs of the game.
Western helped out Monroe when the first two batters of the inning reached on errors. With runners on second and third, Shannon Estes grounded out to second base and brought home the first run of the game.
The second run came when Bruce Shifflett hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield. Monroe grabbed the early lead without even getting their first hit of the game.
In the top of the third inning the Dragon’s threatened again as Jason Nave and Ryan Bouton both hit singles to put a runner in scoring position with just one out. But the next two batters would ground out to eliminate the scoring opportunity.
Western quickly answered with the biggest scoring inning of the game as they put up five runs in the bottom of the third. The Warriors tallied four hits, two walks and were helped by a Monroe error.
Three of those four Western hits were doubles, as they seemed to find every gap in the Monroe defense. After three innings of play the score was in favor of Western 5-2.
For the Dragons, hits were at a minimum in this one. Eric Utz added just the third Monroe hit with a single to lead off the top of the fourth. However first base would be as far as he got when a ground out and a double play ended the inning.
The fourth and fifth innings went by rather quietly as neither team could get much going. But in the bottom of the sixth, Western added to their lead with a three run inning.
The Warriors got four singles and a Monroe throwing error that helped them push the lead to 8-2.
In the seventh inning Monroe went down quietly as they could not get anything going and took a tough loss 8-2.
Western out hit the Dragons 9-3. Estes and Shifflett led Monroe with the only two rbi’s of the game for them.
When asked about the loss, coach Mark Arrington said, “We are frustrated about the loss. Utz pitched a good game. Western did all of their damage in just two innings.”
Coach Arrington also commented, “We need to get our confidence back as a team.”
With the loss the Dragons fell to 5-9-1 overall and 3-5 in the Jefferson District.  Monroe lost to the Orange Hornets 5-0 in Orange on Friday, May 2. At press time on Tuesday, May 6, the Dragons were scheduled to face Fluvanna here at home.