Tides pull away in ninth, snap skid
Noah Denoyer’s starting pitching and Norfolk’s timely ninth-inning hitting enabled the Tides to snap a three-game losing streak with a 6-1 victory Friday night at Nashville before 6,377 at First Horizon Park in Tennessee.
The Tides (8-4) had won four contests in a row before dropping a trio to the Sounds. They moved within a half game of first-place Syracuse (9-4) in the International League’s East Division.
Denoyer struck out six, walked none and yielded no runs and two hits in five innings, lowering his earned run average to 1.80.
Norfolk went ahead in the third inning as Joey Ortiz singled to left, scoring Connor Norby. But with Denoyer out, the Sounds (8-5) loaded the bases in the sixth inning. They tied the game at 1 off reliever Kyle Dowdy (3-0). Former Tide Patrick Dorrian scored as Sal Frelick reached on catcher’s interference charged to Norfolk’s Maverick Handley.
The Tides went ahead to stay in the seventh as Colton Cowser lined a single to left off Robert Stock (0-3), scoring Lewin Diaz for a 2-1 margin.
In the ninth, Daz Cameron provided breathing room, slugging a 430-foot, two-run homer to left off Jake Cousins. The Tides didn’t stop there, with Kyle Stowers singling home Cowser before Norby scored on Ortiz’s doubleplay grounder.
Norfolk relievers Phoenix Sanders, Darwinzon Hernandez and Joey Krehbiel each pitched a scoreless inning to preserve the triumph.
The teams met Saturday night and will wrap up the series with a 3:05 p.m. game today.
Presumably since prehistoric times, siblings have engaged in friendly competition. What happened this week at Virginia Beach National Golf Club takes it to a new level.
Mark Kuehn pulled out a gap wedge Wednesday at the 126-yard seventh hole, with the pin in the middle of the green, and his shot rolled in for an ace.
The next day, that hole was playing 142 yards with the pin in the back of the green. Kuehn’s brother, Bob, playing in another group, pulled out a 7-iron and registered an ace, too.
Two aces from two Virginia Beach brothers in two days on the same hole? That’s got to be among the rarest feats in area sports history.
“Bragging rights in the family lasted less than 24 hours,” said club pro Doug Kelly, a friend of the Kuehns. “That was pretty interesting.”
On Wednesday, Kelly didn’t see Mark’s ace, but was at the club and heard about it. On Thursday, though, “I was standing on the eighth tee when Bob teed off on 7. Our group watched it go in. It hit in the middle of the green and was probably about a 30-foot roll.”
Kelly said Bob is 50, a little younger than his brother, and both “play in flip-flops.” They weren’t playing with each other on either ace, “but when it happened, they celebrated appropriately,” Kelly said. Bob “needed a ride home, let’s put it that way.”
Smart move!
Slugger Gabby Vaughan has accomplished plenty with Norfolk State’s softball program. During a 5-2 victory in Game 1 of a doubleheader split against Hampton, she set an all-time school record with her 40th double.
The senior infielder from Western Branch High is in her fifth year with the Spartans and her third season as one of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference’s best players.
Vaughan’s record:
Setting for success:
Randolph-Macon freshman setter Kody Rogan, a Hickory High graduate, picked up numerous awards in his first year of college play in the Division III Continental Volleyball Conference.
Rogan led the CVC with 889 assists (9.46 per set), 107 more than anybody else, and led the conference with 54 aces to help the Yellow Jackets finish 16-15,
5-3 in a conference that includes Eastern Mennonite, Marymount, Roanoke and Southern Virginia as well as two from Pennsylvania (Elizabethtown and Juniata) and two from New Jersey (Kean and Rutgers-Newark).
Rogan and CVC Rookie of the Year Ian Wagenhauser, the recipient of many of his assists, were named to the national all-freshman team by FrogJump Volleyball.
The All-CVC third team included Rogan and Newport News’ Nate McGhee, a senior outside hitter for Eastern Mennonite who played for Heritage High.
William & Mary women’s lacrosse sophomore Justyce Barber of Odessa, Florida, is the latest excellent athlete from a well-known family.
She’s the daughter of newly minted Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Ronde Barber, who starred for the Virginia Cavaliers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and therefore the niece of former UVA and New York Giants running back Tiki Barber.
Ronde tweeted his support with a highlight of Justyce scoring early in the fourth quarter Wednesday to cut George Washington’s lead to 9-8 in Williamsburg. The Tribe went on to win 10-9 in its last nonconference game.
Family tradition: What’s coming up
Monday:
The Glenn Heath Memorial golf tournament starts a two-day run at the Williamsburg Club. Christopher Newport and Apprentice are among the participants.
William & Mary’s men’s tennis team welcomes VCU for a 4 p.m. match.