Sperduto Freezes Pride Batters in 9-1 Valley Win

Baseball sponsored by diamond sports training

By: Dan Sousa

Leesburg (Mar. 22, 2007) – Loudoun Valley High School senior Charlie Sperduto froze the Heritage bats on a chilly Wednesday evening, allowing just one hit in six innings of work in the Vikings 9-1 non-district victory.

Sperduto, who started Valley’s season off with a bang on Tuesday with a lead-off home run in the season-opening victory over Loudoun County, struck out five and the only run was not earned. Viking s ophomore Daniel Burke made his first varsity appearance and pitched a scoreless seventh inning, striking out two with a walk and no hits.

Heritage led 1-0 in this game before the Vikings broke things wide open by scoring four runs in the second and three runs in the third.

In the second inning Viking senior Mike Shanholtzer hit a bases-loade sacrifice fly to score Trevor Ikwild to tie the game. Senior Clyde Kessler (1-fo-2, RBI, run) then singled in freshman Alex Owens (1-for-2, walk, two runs) . One batter later, senior Scott Mayerdoubled in two more runs.

In the third inning, with the help of two hit batters, two Heritage errors, and a balk, the Vikes scored three more runs.

Valley seniors Carson Parker and Jacob Mays both had a good night at the plate. Parker went 2-for-3 with a walk, run scored, and a stolen base. Mays went 2-for-3 with two RBI’s, two stolen bases, and a run scored.

Heritage junior Nick Hoffman scored the only run for the Pride and Pride sophomore Brenton Peters got the only Heritage hit, a bunt single in the third inning. Sper duto was backed by two diving plays in the outfield, robbing Peters and Joey Donofrio of extra base hits.

Andrew Crane and Tyler Lewkovich pitched well in relief of Heritage starter Tom Polkowski.

Loudoun Valley improves to 2-0 and Heritage drops to 1-1.