Dawn of a new era

DRY FORK — It was all the same, yet it was all so very different.

Megan Dillion pitched seven scoreless innings and collected the only RBI of the game as Tunstall scratched out a 1-0 victory against Gretna on Monday in the season opener for both softball teams, the first game in the Trojans’ 27-year history without Roger Cook at the helm.

Cook, the second-winningest coach in Virginia High School League softball history, retired after leading the Trojans to the state championship game for the second year in a row. Also missing were seven seniors lost to graduation, including Brittany Arnn, the most accomplished pitcher in the program’s history, and a couple of other players who decided not to return.

“We are not the same team that we’ve been, nor are we trying to be,” said first-year coach Caine DeVivi, a Tunstall graduate and an assistant softball coach with the Trojans the last two seasons. “We’re just trying to do the best that we can, every single day, and it started off good for us today.”

Morgan Jones doubled to left with one out in the fourth inning, stole third on a pitch in the dirt and scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Dillion.

“This was probably one of the first softball games I’ve ever really been nervous, other than the state championship games,” said Dillion, after allowing four hits, issuing three walks, hitting a batter and striking out four in her seven innings in the circle.

“Everybody all day at school kept asking, ‘How many strikeouts are you going to get?’” Dillion said. “And I was like, ‘Not very many. I just hope they play defense.’ … We just have to use what we’ve got, and we did it today.”

Gretna left a staggering 10 base runners stranded, including two in each of the last four innings.

The Hawks had runners on second and third when Nina Compton grounded out to freshman second baseman Corbin Holder to end the game.

Tunstall center fielder Jessica Hylton saved the tying run from scoring moments earlier with a strong throw to the plate that kept Keri Holt from rounding third on a single by Nichole Mills.

“I missed Roger today,” Gretna coach Ketina Brooks said, after describing her team’s offensive performance as “flat.”

“Caine is going to have a wonderful team,” she said. “It’s going to be a little different from the strong, dominating pitching that they once had, but the pitcher today did a very good job of stepping in. Those are large shoes to fill, coming in to start after Brittany Arnn...”

Mills took the loss for Gretna despite allowing only three hits through six innings. She struck out four.

“Coach Cook, we all know what he’s done over the years,” DeVivi said. “He’s the founder and the foundation and the leader of this program. I can tell you this: I’m going to work very hard to get it back to where it’s been and try to win a state championship, but I’m not replacing him. I don’t think anybody ever could…

“We’re very proud of where we’ve been, but it’s not about where we’ve been. It’s about where we’re about to go. And we have a lot of work in front of us.”