Powhatan wins AA baseball title

Minutes before the Group AA state championship game, Powhatan senior pitcher Joe Manion wore a graduation cap atop his baseball uniform. Moments later, he changed into a baseball cap.

Both hats were cause for celebration Saturday.

After an on-field graduation ceremony recognizing Powhatan’s 11 seniors, Manion helped pitch the veteran Indians to a 4-1 win over Brookville in the title game at Radford University, capturing the school’s second state championship and first since 2008.

“It’s a dream come true,” Manion said. “We got to win a state title and graduate at the same time. It’s just unbelievable.”

Right fielder Matt Lyman went 2-for-3 with two RBI singles and a walk and left fielder Alex Higuchi was 2-for-3 with an RBI triple in the sixth. Designated hitter Andrew Corbitt drove in the team’s first run with an RBI single in the second inning.

Manion, pitching on three days rest, threw an economical 77 pitches in his 5 1/3 innings of work, before turning the ball over to Tanner Phillips, who retired five of the seven batters he faced to end the game and give the Indians (24-4) the championship.

Manion, a left-hander who will play at Massachusetts next year, allowed one run on four hits and one error, striking out three and walking none.

“Coming off three days rest, he came out and pounded the zone,” said Powhatan coach Greg Conner, whose second state title was his 430th career win. “He didn’t have his best control early, adrenaline. But then he settled in.”

Right-hander David Goulding pitched six innings for Brookville (19-7), giving up four runs on seven hits.

After beating King William and Cave Spring in the quarterfinals and semifinals by matching 4-3 scores, Conner said he was just waiting for Brookville to tack on two more runs to turn Saturday’s affair into another nail-biter.

After all, this was a superstitious bunch of Indians, Conner included. So much so that the team mimicked the schedule and habits of the 2008 title team, from the on-field graduation, to the team meal at a Lynchburg restaurant on the drive down Wednesday.

An assistant coach wore the same pullover he wore in 2008. Players knelt in the same spot in each post-game huddle. They even tried to spend their downtime doing the same things players from the last title team told them they did.

And when Phillips got the final Brookville batter to tap out to second, the Indians flung their caps into the air, the way high school graduates, and sports champions, often do.

“The coaches said they don’t remember their graduations,” Corbitt said. “But we’ll sure remember ours.”

** Mike Barber is a sportswriter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.