Rams baseball wins in walk-off fashion over Cougars
McDonough pick up victory over Cougars on error in final inning
McDonough’s baseball team has already had some success thus far in 2016 with walk-offs when trailing or being tied in the bottom of the final inning.
Wednesday versus visiting Thomas Stone, the Rams found themselves in a familiar position.
With the game knotted at 4 with bases loaded and two outs, McDonough’s Damien Price hit a infield grounder to Stone second baseman Lee Foster.
Foster bobbled the ball while gathering it in his glove and tried to flip it over to second for the force out, but Trevor Drummond was called safe on the tag.
Third baseman David Larson then came to home plate from third as the Rams edged the Cougars with the 5-4 victory in their Southern Maryland Athletic Conference Potomac Division opener.
“I just wanted to put the ball in play and not do anything special or hit it over the fence and good things happen,” said Price, a transfer from Washington Catholic Athletic Conference private school McNamara of Prince George’s County. “Stone had a couple
good hits on high fastballs. Other than that, we just have to make plays in the field to back up our pitchers. I think once we start making some plays defensively and hitting the ball consistent we can be real good this year.”
McDonough (5-3, 1-0 Potomac), which fell 7-3 at Great Mills on Monday, are a perfect 3 for 3 on the season in walk-offs, defeating visiting Huntingtown 2-1 in nine innings on March 29 and Patuxent 8-7 last Friday. The Rams are scheduled to visit county foe North Point at 4:30 p.m. today
“Stone has gotten better since last year and Ed [Gleaser] is a good coach and they are going to beat some good teams,” said McDonough head coach Mike Lydon, referring to the Stone head coach. “They should’ve beat us. We didn’t hit well, we only had five hits. The game could have went either way. We had opportunities and are struggling offensively right now, but we pulled it out again on a walk-off. A win’s a win.”
Nick Bonaccorsy suffered the loss on the mound for Stone (15, 0-1), which used four different pitchers in the game, allowing two hits with one walk while pitching parts of the sixth and seventh.
McDonough’s Kendrick Musser earned the win after pitch-
ing a scoreless seventh, yielding just one hit.
Price was the starter on the mound for the Rams, pitching six innings with struck six strikeouts, allowing just four hits and three walks and he hit a batter with a pitch.
The game was tied at 3 in the top of the sixth when Julian Williams gave Stone the 4-3 lead on a two-out RBI single to left field, scoring courtesy runner David Steckroth.
“Our problem is that when we break down defensively we just don’t have the pitching staff that can get the outs consistency. We are pitching by committee,” Glaeser said. His team, which is scheduled to host Westlake at
4:30 p.m. today, committed four errors as did the Rams. “Overall, we played well today and we are getting better as a team. It is difficult. Right now we are having a tough time throwing and catching the ball. On that last play, Lee had it and fumbled it, but it happens. We did the best we can.”
Trailing 3-0 after three innings, the Cougars scored their first run of the game in the top of the fourth as Bonaccorsy, who led off the frame with a single, came to home plate on an RBI groundout by center fielder Nolan Williams.
The Cougars weren’t done as catcher Rudy Carrico hit a oneout, two-run double to tie the game at 3.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third when sophomore catcher Lane Myers banged out a three-run home run on a 3-ball, 1-strike count off of Cougars starter Zach Warman to spark McDonough to a 3-0 lead.
“Our team was kind of moping in the dugout, so I felt like that hit really motivated us to do better,” Myers said. “We just need to jump on teams early. We start off dry in the beginning and when it comes down to the seventh inning that’s when we come alive. We need to start doing that in the first inning, so we can get those runs early and don’t have to worry about hitting a walk-off and being in those situations.”