By James J. Lidington

ISLE OF WIGHT

Isle of Wight Academy suffered its first loss in its last 10 games with a 7-3 defeat at the hands of top-ranked Greenbrier Christian last Thursday at home.

The Chargers (10-4, 4-0 in the Metro Athletic Conference) never led against Greenbrier. Starting pitcher Aidan Williams held the visitors to one hit in the first two innings, but his luck ran out in the third, when the Gators scored two runs on as many hits

For their part, IWA wouldn’t get on the board until the fifth inning when Ryan Boyce singled home leadoff hitter Cole Praither with one out. Boyce advanced as far as third, but was stranded when Andrew Holt lined out and Noah Colyer struck out looking to end the inning.

IWA left 10 runners on base in the game, as did Greenbrier.

IWA struck for two more runs in the sixth. Bryce Daniels reached on an error, took second on Hunter Hayden’s single. Daniels scored on a one-out single by Kody Kosiorek, who would score later himself.

The Chargers trailed by 4-3 going into the top of the sixth. But Greenbrier’s Chris Harrell doubled to lead of the inning. After Nic Britt struck out for the first out, Austin Younce homered to make the score 6-3. They would tack on another run in the seventh on a two-out double by Britt.

The Gators led the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division II Poll in its April 22 iteration, the most recent. IWA is sixth.

IWA won its first game of the year, against Blessed Sacrament-Huguenot. They then lost three in a row to Highland School, Nansemond-Suffolk Academy and Norfolk Academy. Since that 1-3 start, they won nine games in consecutive fashion over the next month.

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IWA defeated Christchurch School 13-0 on April 23 in Saluda.

Daniels was 1-for-3 with three RBI’s, and Praither, Boyce and Holt each had two hits.

Boyce and Hayden combined to limit the Seahorses to one hit in five innings.

Boyce continues to lead his team in hitting with 20 hits in 38 at-bats for a .526 average.

Daniels is second at .514; Kody Kosiorek is third at .438.

The Chargers have a busy week ahead with four games scheduled. They hosted Atlantic Shores on Monday and Denbigh Baptist on Tuesday. Both games began at 4:30 p.m.

They travel to Portsmouth Christian and play at Denbigh on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. Wednesday’s game begins at 3:30 p.m.; Thursday’s at 4:30 p.m.

The Chargers are also scheduled to play at Fuqua on Monday, May 6, in their final regular-season game.

The Metro Conference baseball tournament starts on Tuesday, May 7, with a game between fifth seed at the fourth seed in a first-round game.

The semifinals are on Thursday, May 9, with the top seed hosting the No. 5/No. 4 winner and the No. 2 seed hosting the third seed.

The championship game is on Friday, May 10, at 4:30 p.m., at Atlantic Shores.

As of this writing, IWA was in first place just ahead of Atlantic Shores.

The Metro Conference Varsity softball tournament starts Thursday, May 9, with the semifinal games. The No. 1-seeded team will host the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed will host the No. 3-seeded team.

Semifinal winners meet for the Metro Conference tournament championship at 4:30 p.m. Friday, May 10, at Atlantic Shores.

IWA led second-place Shores by two games in the April 20 standings.

JAMES J. LIDINGTON is a teacher at Isle of Wight Academy. He can be reached at 357-3866.