CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – It’s one game for the championship in the Valley Baseball League. 

Ryan Bates allowed one unearned run on three hits over 8 1/3 innings of work to pitch Winchester to a 6-1 win over the Charlottesville Tom Sox on Wednesday night at CHO Field, evening up the best-of-three championship series at a game apiece. 

The teams will meet in the deciding game Thursday night back in Winchester, where the Tom Sox won 10-1 on Tuesday in the series opener. 

Harrison Camp hit an RBI single to right field in the bottom of the third inning to give Charlottesville a 1-0 lead. But that would be all the Tom Sox could get off Bates, a right-hander who plays collegiately at Binghamton. 

Bates threw 116 pitches on the night, striking out nine and walking just one.

The Royals erupted for five runs in the top of the fourth inning, highlighted by a two-run single to left center. 

They added another run in the top of the sixth when Carl Keenan came home on an error.

Reliever Lucas Arbelaez, a Charlottesville native, threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief for the Tom Sox.

The Tom Sox, playing in their fifth consecutive VBL championship series, are now a win away from the franchise’s fifth title, and first since 2024.