A year ago, a young Buckingham County baseball squad won a region playoff game for the first time in more than two decades.
Apparently that was just a stepping stone for this group of Knights.
A year later, for the first time in program history, Buckingham County baseball is headed for the state tournament.
The No. 2-seeded Knights beat Strasburg 7-6 Wednesday afternoon thanks in large part to junior Holden Tyson’s walk-off RBI single that scored Avery Schaeffer in the bottom of the seventh that broke the 6-6 deadlock created by Strasburg’s strong fifth, sixth and seventh innings where they pieced together six runs to tie the game up after Buckingham led from the first inning on.
Buckingham built its lead starting in the bottom of the first when sophomore Justin Gunter ripped a double to left field and scored Rocco Raynor. The Knights tacked on two more in the bottom of the second when an error by the Rams led to Eli Bryant and Ethan Walter scoring after Jacob Carter put the ball in play. Later in the inning, Gunter notched a two-RBI single to left, scoring Carter and Braedyn Schaeffer. Just two innings in, Buckingham was up 5-0 and in control. A Camden Allen RBI in the fourth pushed the lead to 6-0.
But Strasburg refused to go quietly, scoring three runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth before finally tying the game in the top of the seventh when Hayden Fravel posted an RBI single to short.
Buckingham minimized the damage when Cameron Newton stepped in to pitch and on his second pitch, induced a double play with Gunter turning it from third.
The Knights got eight strikeouts from Schaeffer in his 6.1 innings of work on the mound.
Gunter finished the game 3-for-3 with three RBI at the plate while Braedyn Schaeffer went 2-for-4 and scored twice. Tyson finished 2-for-3 on the day with the critical RBI in the bottom of the seventh.
Buckingham will host Stuarts Draft, who went on the road and beat Madison County 2-1 Wednesday night in the Region 2B semifinals before starting the Class 2 state playoffs Tuesday.