Princess Anne pitcher shines in losing all-star effort

By Jason Kidd

NEWPORT NEWS

A stellar pitching performance by Princess Anne graduate Ben Tomchick went to waste Thursday.

Halifax County's Justin Bagbey hit a three-run double in a four-run fifth inning that spurred the West to a 7-6 victory over the East at Captains Park in the VHSCA All-Star game.

Bagbey, named the West MVP, went 3 for 4 with two doubles and five RBIs. But the future Chowan University player struck out against Tomchick in his first at-bat.

"Well, I went up there in my first at-bat and I was a little nervous," Bagbey said. "But after that, I started seeing the ball real well and tried to put my best swing on it and luckily I hit a couple of good ones."

Tomchick, the only player from South Hampton Roads to play in the game, started and earned East MVP honors. Mixing his pitches well, the Old Dominion signee allowed no hits or walks in two shutout innings. He struck out the side looking in the second inning.

"You got to do that (mix pitches) when you're facing good hitting," Tomchick said. "The talent on both teams was crazy. I think if you could put jerseys on both these teams they could beat college teams."

East coach Gregg Connor, from Powhatan High School, praised Tomchick.

"I had not seen Tomchick and I really, really liked watching him pitch," Connor said. "I think he's going to be a real good one."

The West scored two runs in the fourth off pitcher Dustin Galbraith. A double by Bagbey scored one of those runs.

After Galbraith redeemed himself by hitting a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth to put the East up 4-2, the West scored four more runs in the fifth. Bagbey hit his second double, this one bringing in three runs to put the West up 6-4.

The East ran itself out of scoring chances in the last two innings. With runners on the corners in a 7-5 game in the sixth, the East tried a double steal. However, the West executed on defense and threw Paul Nice out at home as Cody Brown stole second. One batter later, Brown was thrown out trying to steal third to end the inning.

Trailing 7-6 in the seventh inning, the East was again threatening, with runners on first and second with one out. Hampton's Matt Shaffer hit what appeared to be a base hit. Sean Fields left second trying to score, but the ball was caught by the West leftfielder and Fields was doubled up at second.

"We knew we had guys coming in who could run so we wanted to run," Connor said. "It worked sometimes and sometimes it didn't."