McDonough baseball blanks Huntingtown
Butler throws complete-game, 4-hit shutout as Rams extends win streak to four
Some 48 hours after notching 4-3 walk-off win on visiting La Plata, McDonough’s baseball team entered Monday’s Southern Maryland Athletic Conference crossover contest with another tough test in front of it.
That test was passed once again as the visiting Rams won in convincing 4-0 fashion over defending Class 3A state champion Huntingtown.
The win for McDonough (8-1 overall), its fourth straight, came as three of the four runs were unearned.
“We scored our runs by putting the ball in play and playing small ball,” McDonough head coach Mike Lydon said. “Huntingtown made a couple of crucial errors that helped us out tremendously. Our pitching and defense held it down for us.”
The Rams took on Northern in another crossover game on Tuesday and is scheduled to host Chopticon at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
McDonough was anchored by the stellar pitching of Brant Butler, who threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout with three strikeouts. The senior ace improved to 3-0 on the hill this season.
“It felt good to pitch a shutout. I knew Huntingtown had a very good hitting team,” said Butler, who walked just one batter and had a base hit offensively in the game. “I just wanted to throw strikes and keep them off balance. I kept the ball low and let my defense back me up and they did a very good job. We have momentum going right now with the way that we are playing. We just have to keep on getting better.”
In the top of the first, a double by Kendrick Musser and a single by Trevor Drummond was followed by Butler driving in Musser on a sacrifice fly to right field for the game’s first run.
In the top of the third, junior Kyle Wedding collected a single to lead things off. Musser then hit a grounder and reached
second on a Huntingtown fielding error as Wedding came to home plate for the second run. Moments later with two outs, Musser scored on a passed ball to push the lead to 3-0.
Wedding also had several good defensive plays in right field, including a diving catch on fly ball that was hit by Huntingtown’s Andrew Pawlowski in the fourth.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the fifth, Musser scored his third run of the game on a missed pickoff play attempt at second base.
“We have the potential to go deep in the playoffs and make a run at states,” Lydon said. “We have to start hitting the ball and getting better with our in-game situations and we will be fine. Today was a very good win for us.”
Huntingtown (5-3), which is scheduled to host Leonardtown at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in a SMAC Chesapeake Division game, collected just one extra-base hit in the game, which was a double in the bottom of the fourth from sophomore Ryan Terrents.
Terrents, also started on the mound for the Hurricanes, throwing five innings with three strikeouts. He allowed four hits on just one earned run and walked three batters. Spencer Cooper pitched the final two innings, allowing just two hits, one walk and one strikeout.
“We had some errors that hurt us today, but McDonough did what they needed to and did a great job of getting runners in scoring position,” Huntingtown head coach Guy Smith said. “We didn’t put any pressure on them offensively to change the pace of the game. We pitched well today. We need some senior leadership right now and trying to find guys that will step up and compete everyday and the will to win and we didn’t have that today.”
Drummond, who was 2 for 4 on the day, appeared to have suffered a right knee injury after he grounded out in the top of the seventh. The extent of the injury was not known as of press time.
Musser reached base three times in four plate appearances and sophomore Austin Simms had a base hit and a walk in the game.
In Saturday’s Potomac Division contest versus La Plata, Peyton Myers collected a bases loaded RBI walk to tie the game at 3. Then, Simms notched a game-winning bases loaded single to lift McDonough to victory.