The Mathews High School varsity baseball season came to an end last Wednesday as the Blue Devils fell to the visiting Essex Trojans, 10-2, in the semifinal round of the VHSL Region A, Class 1 tournament.

“It was not our best performance by any means,” said MHS head coach Al DeWitt. “Give Essex credit, they came to play and played well. We did not respond to the challenge as we should have.”

Starting pitcher Marc Smith pitched well enough in the first four innings; however, two errors resulted in two of the three runs to be unearned. Another error in the fifth allowed two more runs to score with Daniel Moughon on the mound.

In the seventh inning, two more errors contributed to Essex scoring five runs. “The bottom line was we did not play good defense and only had four hits,” DeWitt said. Will Jackson had two of the Devils’ four hits.

Overall, Mathews had a successful season with an 8-4 record in the COVID-shortened year. MHS defeated King William twice, was first in the Tid...