Bray settles down to lead Chatham to state semis

CHATHAM — After Chatham right-hander Matt Bray allowed the first two batters to reach base in the sixth inning, Chatham coach Chad Anderson went out to the mound check on his workhorse.

“When I was worried about him, we needed six outs,” Anderson said. “I’m sure he was struggling a little but when he looked at the scoreboard, he realized what was going on. He got that second wind.”

Although Bray gave up one unearned run that inning, the senior didn’t allow any more as Chatham held on to defeat Northumberland 7-2 in the Group A state quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Chatham (23-2) advanced to play Rappahannock on Friday at 10 a.m. at Radford. Rappahannock, the top seed in Region A, defeated Madison County 3-0 in a rain-shortened game on Tuesday. Honaker will face Gate City in the other semifinal on Friday.

The Cavaliers gave Northumberland (18-7) trouble in the second inning. After Bray drew leadoff walk, Chatham loaded the bases with a pair of singles. Indians left-hander Kyle Hall walked in Chatham’s first run before giving up an RBI double to Beau Cassada. The Cavaliers added two more runs to take a 4-0 lead.

“That’s what we needed,” said Chatham first baseman Tyler Younger, who celebrated his 18th birthday with a pair of RBI doubles in the victory. “It helped us to relax so we could just play our game.”

Northumberland got one run back in the third inning on Zach Kues’ leadoff homer to right field. That was one of the few mistakes Bray made the entire game. He finished with six strikeouts while scattering six hits.

“We gave the ball to Bray and rode his back,” Anderson said. “We made the plays defensively all night and Bray was sharp.”

Leading 5-1, Chatham added two more insurance runs in the fifth thanks to a wild pitch and an error.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get some bounces to go our way,” Mothershead said. “Overall, we had a great year and I’m glad we got to go this far.”

Northumberland didn’t even qualify for its district tournament a season ago.

Hall struck out seven in five innings of work despite pitching in his third game in seven days for the Indians.

Northumberland got a two-out single in the top of the seventh, but Gavin Hylton threw out Jalen Conaway, who was attempting to steal second base, to end the game and secure Chatham’s spot in the final four.