Coming into Thursday night’s matchup between the Norfolk Christian Ambassadors and the Norfolk Academy Bulldogs, both teams were reeling off tough losses, Christian suffered a 6-5 defeat against Collegiate on Wednesday, and Academy lost in a 10-0 game against Walsingham on Tuesday, but for Norfolk Christian the result was better, as the Ambassadors notched a 12-3 win.
Gardner Meeks took the mound for Norfolk Christian, while Brendan Kaster had to face the Ambassadors offense, which shined in the win, along with a rock solid defensive performance by Norfolk Christian and an all-around good offensive showing by his teammates, much to the approval of coach Bobby Coley.
“That was a great team effort,” Coley said. “We clicked a lot better tonight and played a much cleaner game, I'm excited going forward. Gardner gave me five good innings, and that was our goal to start the game, he was a bulldog and got out of tough situations.”
Meeks was credited with the win, after going five innings, striking out seven, only allowing three runs to Bulldog hitters over his five innings. Meeks also scored a run in the fifth inning on a ball in the dirt.
“This is a great stepping stone to get the momentum going into the postseason,” Meeks commented. “We had been struggling in the middle of the season, but seem to be finding a good form, in both hitting and pitching and putting a whole game together.”
“We know they (Academy) have talent, they have some good coaches and some really good players. We really just wanted to stick to our game plan, we feel like if we play our best game not many people can beat us.” Meeks added.
For infielder Baraka Florence, his contribution came late but helped to really seal the deal, with an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“It was a good game, we executed and got stuff done, I had the one mistake with the ground ball but we hit the baseball well, we really did a good job today,” Florence exclaimed.
Junior first baseman Ty Johnson added two RBI and a forced a run in when he was hit by a pitch in the sixth inning, along with player shut down defense at first base.
Norfolk Christian moves to 17-8 with the win and their season will wrap up with a doubleheader at Lakewood Park on Saturday. Norfolk Academy drops to 10-11, with today’s game being the final of their season.
