Looking Ahead: April 8-13

Washington & Lee (Montross) at Colonial Beach, Tuesday, April 9
A Class 1A District showdown has a chance to be one of the premier pitching matchups of the spring. W&L is off to an 8-0 start and will likely send junior Jordan Peyton (Radford) to the mound for the start. Colonial Beach is off to a slow start with some losses to bigger schools, but senior Mason DeLane (VCU) has been good, striking out 17 in his last start. Peyton has been no slouch in the strikeout column himself, with 26 in his last 11.2 innings over three outings. The strikeout totals from this game have a chance to be eye-popping.

Loudoun Valley at Woodgrove, Thursday, April 11
The Purcellville crosstown rivalry re-ignites with its first edition of 2019. Both teams are likely to send hard-throwing seniors and future teammates to the mound with Michael Grupe (Virginia Tech) the likely starter for Valley and Nick Lockhart (Virginia Tech) probably getting the ball for Woodgrove. Valley has been strong this year and is just outside of our Power 25, a win here would give the Vikings an early stranglehold on the Dulles District with wins over Woodgrove and Riverside.

No. 1 Benedictine at No. 7 Miller School, Thursday, April 11
Two of the top private schools in Virginia face off on Thursday and Benedictine will likely get their toughest test so far on the season in a loaded Miller School team. We have gushed a bunch about both of these teams and will undoubtedly continue to do so, but this game will feature eight players already committed to play Division I ball in college as well as the top prospect in the 2019 class and a handful of other players that will play at a high level after high school.

Tallwood vs. Cox, Tuesday, April 11 and Thursday, April 13
A Beach District showdown pits a pair of teams off to an undefeated start to 2019 against each other this week. The Beach District plays home and homes in the same week for District play, and this game will be at Cox on Tuesday and Tallwood on Thursday. Junior Luke Gibson has put together back-to-back double digit strikeout games for Tallwood and should start one of the games for the Lions. He and Mark Smith (Potomac St CC) are key pieces in the middle of the Tallwood lineup. Cox has been dominant in most of their games and will roll out Elias Dills in one of the games. The Falcons have a tough top of the order to navigate with freshman Ethan Anderson (Virginia) and seniors South Trimble (George Mason) and Cam Wallace forming a tough top three.