Technically speaking, Carson Stephens isn’t Mills Godwin’s ace. But he might as well be.

The junior threw 6 2/3 innings last night and picked up the win as Godwin defeated Lee-Davis 4-2 in the quarterfinals of the Central Region baseball tournament.

Junior Matt Lees generally is regarded as Godwin’s top pitcher. But coach John Marano has a handful of arms in which he has confidence. In the past few weeks, Stephens has pitched well for the Eagles.

A few days before the game, third baseman Erik Payne went to Marano and told him he should start Stephens, and Marano agreed.

It was the right call. Stephens gave up two earned runs on six hits and struck out 11. He walked only two.

“I told him, ‘Your teammates want the ball in your hand,’ ” Marano said.

In the bottom of the second, Lee-Davis’ Michael Thomas hit a hard line drive back to the mound. The ball hit Stephens in the knee cap. He lay on the ground for a few moments. But after throwing a few warm-up pitches, he stayed in the game.

The next batter, third baseman Hank Parsley, hit a two-run home run on a 3-2 pitch, putting the Confederates up 2-0. After that, Stephens cruised. He retired 15 of the last 19 batters he faced.

“It motivated me to go after them more,” Stephens said of getting hit in the knee. “I knew they were going after me.”

After recording two outs in the seventh inning, Stephens walked Logan Heckman. That caused Marano to bring in Adam Blankinship to get the one-out save.

Godwin got all four of its runs in the third inning, and all were unearned. After Lee-Davis made back-to-back errors, a two-run double by Zach Mihalko put the Eagles up 4-2.

“[Errors] keep the inning alive,” Lee-Davis coach Kenny Lewis said. “They capitalized.”

Stephens said his curveball and slider didn’t start really working for him until the second or third inning, enabling him to eliminate batter after batter.

“We just never got anything going,” Lewis said. “[Stephens] was the story
here. He was the difference.”

Eric Kolenich is a staff writer for the Richmond Times Dispatch.

Mills Godwin ...........004 000 0 — 4 10 0
Lee-Davis….............. 020 000 0 — 2 6 2
Stephens, Blankinship (7) and Moore;
Boze, Thomas (4), Kluver (6) and Connerley.
W: Stephens. L: Boze.
Records: Mills Godwin 19-3; Lee-Davis 16-2.