Tobin's Grand Slam Lifts West Springfield to Win

West Springfield senior catcher Tucker Tobin has been a steadying influence all season, handling ace pitchers Mike Kent and Bobby Wahl and serving as a team leader. His contributions have been essential, but often subtle.

Not so the past two games. After homering in the first inning of the Northern Region final Saturday, Tobin delivered another first-inning shot, this time a grand slam, in a 10-5 home win over Deep Run last night in a Virginia AAA quarterfinal.

Tobin's blast helped settle Wahl, a junior right-hander who struggled early before locking in and retiring 10 consecutive batters to end the game, the final seven by strikeout.

The Spartans (23-4) advance to the state semifinals at 3 p.m. Friday at Westfield to face Menchville or Stafford. Those teams will play at Stafford at 4 p.m. today after being rained out last night.

Frank W. Cox, a 6-1 winner over Battlefield last night, and Hanover, a 4-0 winner over Lake Braddock, will meet in a 7 p.m. semifinal Friday at Westfield. The state final is at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Kent and Wahl, both selected all-region, have carried West Springfield at times this season, but they received plenty of run support in the 11-1 region final win over Lake Braddock and the victory over Deep Run (14-10).

The Spartans, who coupled 12 walks with seven hits last night, chased North Carolina-bound left-hander R.C. Orlan by batting around in the first inning. They also scored off both relievers.

"It's good to finally score some runs for our pitchers," said Tobin, who has driven in eight runs the past two games. "I think normally with our team all it takes is one person to square up and get a big hit, and everybody else starts swinging it, too."

"Tucker's been the man the past two games," said Wahl, who struck out 11 and walked three, none after the second inning, to improve to 9-0. He also drove in three runs. "Without him, I don't know where we'd be."

Wahl gave up four runs in the first two innings, three on back-to-back doubles in the second by junior Owen Beightol and senior Scott Laabs. Double plays in the third and fourth helped him avert more damage.

"He's got a feel for the strike zone and got a feel for his release point," West Springfield Coach John James said. "Once he did that and got into a rhythm, he was back to his old self."

Scoring five runs in the first and four in the third bought some time for the Spartans, who are in the state semifinals for the first time since winning the title in 1998.

"It obviously relaxes us in the dugout, because we don't feel like we have to go to the bullpen right away," James said. "We can let him struggle a little bit and see if he can work his way out of it." . . .

Jacob Kline pitched a nine-inning complete game and singled home the winning run as Potomac Falls clipped Grafton, 3-2, to advance to the AA state semifinals.

As he's done all season long, the Panthers' senior hurler got stronger as the game wore on, striking out three of the final six batters he faced. He scattered 11 hits but did not walk a batter and struck out nine Clippers.

"I knew he was going to give me a good pitch, and I thought, 'Just hit it,' " Kline said.

Special correspondent Matt Brooks contributed to this report.