It took 11 innings to decide a winner in the first round conference tournament matchup between Ashe County and Forbush.
Austin Levengood drove in the game-winning run with a single to left field to give the Falcons an 8-7 victory over the visiting Huskies.
Forbush scored a pair in the first inning to take an early lead. Levengood had an RBI single and Ben Temple scored on an error.
Ashe got one run back in the top of the second with a sacrifice fly from Hunter Barnes that scored Bradley Richie.
The Huskies then took a lead in the top of the third inning without getting a hit.
Alex Laws walked and stole second base before Joe Richardson laid down a nice sacrifice bunt to move Laws to third. Carson Knight was hit by a pitch in the next at-bat to put two runners on. Laws scored and Knight moved to second on a balk called against Falcon pitcher Mason Doub.
With Cameron Guyton at the plate, Knight decided to take a chance and steal third base. The throw down to third was misplayed which allowed Knight to score after the stolen base.
The back-and-forth scoring continued in the bottom of the third with Forbush plating two more runs. Neil Hutchens drove in a run on an infield single and then Doub’s bunt brought in a second run, making the score 4-3.
Ashe jumped back ahead with a big four-run outburst in the top of the fifth. Three runs scored on an error and Barnes brought in another run with a single.
Trailing by a 7-4 score, Forbush rallied for three runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game.
Doub singled and brought in a run, Nelson Valerio scored on an error and Carson Fulp added an RBI single to cap off the scoring.
Guyton pitched out of big trouble in the bottom of the seventh inning. With the bases loaded, Guyton struck out Levengood to leave the winning run at third.
In the eighth, Joseph Lowder was on the mound for Ashe and had to pitch out of even bigger trouble. Forbush had the bases loaded with only one out. Lowder amped up the pitches and struck out a pair of Falcon hitters to end the scoring threat.
Ashe got a single in the top of the 11th from Brandon Carpenter, but were unable to get any runs.
In the 11th, Levengood came through the game-winning hit to score Barrett Hennings to end Ashe’s season.
Fulp got the win on the mound pitching 6.2 innings in relief. He allowed just two runs and one walk with five strikeouts.
Richardson took the loss pitching one inning of relief and allowing one run on two hits with two walks and a pair of strikeouts.
Guyton had a solid start for Ashe, going seven innings and allowing just three earned runs on 11 hits with 10 strikeouts. The senior finished the year with a 3.09 ERA, four wins and a team-high 78 strikeouts in 10 games.
Richardson finished the year with a 3.61 ERA and 29 strikeouts.
Offensively, Knight led all Ashe players with a .304 batting average and 15 RBIs. Laws and Knight tied for the team lead with 14 hits each and Laws led all players with 14 runs scored. Junior Matthew Hamilton also had a good year with a .282 average, 12 runs scored and five RBIs. Richardson finished with a team-leading nine stolen bases.
The Huskies ended the year with a 5-12 record overall and in conference.
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