By James J. Lidington

Isle of Wight Academy

Isle of Wight Academy held off a seventh-inning upset bid by Fuqua School to claim a 12-11 baseball victory here Thursday.

The Chargers also defeated Kenston Forest 13-2 on Tuesday, following a 9-5 loss Monday – their first of the year – to Greenbrier Christian at Hampton’s War Memorial Stadium.

The wins kept the Chargers (8-1) in seventh place in the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division II poll. Fuqua had been the No. 3 team in the VISAA Division III poll of schools with the smallest enrollments in the association; the Falcons fell to fourth this week.

Trailing IWA 12-3 with one out in the seventh Thursday, the Falcons massaged two hit batters, three singles, an error, two walks and a double into an 8-run inning, and giving Fuqua the tying run on second base with one out.

Enter IWA’s James Thompson in his first mound appearance of the season. The junior recorded a strikeout and induced the final batter to fly out to center to earn the save.

IWA’s Kody Kosiorek had four hits and teammates Christian Biernot and Jackson Cofer each collected three hits for their team. Biernot also drove in five runs against the Falcons.

Dustin Moon, Ian Rickmond, Trevor Mason, Trent Holland and Biernot each had two hits versus Kenston Forest.

IWA saw a second-inning 3-0 lead evaporate versus the Gators, the No. 1 team in Division II. Moon and Rickmond each had three hits versus Greenbrier and Rickmond held them to one hit in the first two innings, scattering 3 walks and striking out one.

But Greenbrier was far from finished, stringing together a hit batsman, three singles and a triple to take a 4-3 lead. The team would go on to score six runs that inning, adding three more in the sixth.

The Chargers wrap up their regular-season schedule with games at Tidewater Academy Thursday and Windsor High School Friday. Games times are at 4:30 p.m. State tournament pairings are to be announced on Sunday, May 16.

The Lady Charger softball team notched three wins on the week, defeating Fuqua 15-1 Thursday, Southampton High School 15-3 Wednesday and Kenston Forest 5-1 Tuesday.

The Chargers (5-5) are scheduled to host Broadwater Monday, play Thursday at Southampton and at Windsor Friday. IWA is currently ranked fifth in Division II.

The IWA Golf Team tees off Thursday in a match at Cypress Creek Golfers Club.