BUCKINGHAM – After getting a road victory over Randolph-Henry earlier in the week, the Buckingham County High School baseball team hoped to complete the season sweep over the Statesmen on Friday afternoon, but a disastrous fifth inning in which R-H scored eight runs ended the Knights' hopes for the sweep in an 11-2 loss for BCHS.

“We had the one bad inning,” said BCHS head coach Mike Jones. “They had the bases loaded, we brought the infield in and got the play we needed, but couldn't make the throw. One mistake led to another, and before we knew it, the game had gotten out of hand.

“We didn't make the plays we needed to make. Hopefully, we learned a couple of lessons this afternoon.”

Randolph-Henry scored two runs in the top of the first, but Buckingham cut the lead in half in the bottom of the second. Mason Baber doubled to lead off the second for Buckingham and later scored on a mis-fielded throw down to third base.

Freshman pitcher Andy Flippen, who had pitched well enough into the fifth inning to keep Buckingham within striking distance, started to tire. Randolph-Henry loaded the bases and took advantage of two BCHS errors in the field to blow open the game with a 10-1 lead.

Buckingham scored its other run in the bottom of the sixth. Dillon Davis singled to lead off the inning and later scored on a fielder's choice ground out by Justin Smith, but the Knights were not able to get any closer.

“I guess the positive is that we made them play seven innings, but we didn't do much to give ourselves a chance at getting back into the game, otherwise,” said Jones. “We didn't do a good job of dictating the game, and they did. We got caught up in distractions, and they didn't. In the end, the teams that do the former, and don't allow the latter to happen, come away with the victory.”

Buckingham was scheduled to travel to Cumberland on Tuesday, weather permitting, and will host Goochland on Thursday, before traveling to Bluestone on May 16.

“We still have a couple of games that if we can win them, we will be able to get a good spot in the tournament, but we have to take the lessons we learned in today's game and apply them to those final three games. If not, we will have to learn them all over again.”