Coming up just short
Indian Head comes back from 7-run deficit, but loses by 1
By TAMMY SHOWALTER tshowalter@somdnews.com
St. Mary’s Post 255 had a 7-0 lead after four innings in Wednesday night’s American Legion baseball contest against Indian Head/Clinton at Chancellor’s Run Regional Park in Great Mills.
Indian Head battled back to tie the game only to see St. Mary’s take the lead again and get the job done, holding on for a 10-9 win.
St. Mary’s (9-3 overall) took the 7-0 lead after four innings on just four hits, but the visitors came back in the top of the fifth to score five runs on four solid hits off of St. Mary’s starter Sam Baden. Indian Head tied the game at 7 in the sixth when a walk came back to bite the hosts and starting third baseman Jerry Delph hit an RBI single to center field.
In the bottom of the sixth, St. Mary’s jumped back on top with three runs on a string of singles by Connor Cox, Zach Stanford, Hunter Rooney and Ryan Rothman. With one out in the top of the seventh, Indian Head faced Rooney on the mound and he started with a walk to catcher Kevin Chen. Dylan Will connected for a single to center. A head’s-up play at third base took care of the lead runner, but an overthrow to first base scored a run.
With two outs and the tying run at the plate, left fielder Zach We hausen hit an RBI single through the infield to bring Indian Head within one. Rooney was replaced by Rothman, who struck out Andrew Wright and catcher Tyler Waugh threw down the dropped strike for the final out and the 10-9 win.
Although both teams saw its fair share of errors, a combined seven in the contest, each team worked to come back. St. Mary’s acting head coach Tyler Kimmey said his team got a little complacent.
“They had a big lead and didn’t keep up the intensity,” Kimmey said. “There were a few errors in that [fifth] inning, which cost us about five runs. They don’t give up and they know that they’re better than that one inning that they allowed those runs. We were trying to save some pitching that we’d used up earlier in the week, so that
was why we were a little reluctant to make a change in the beginning.”
Waugh, who fills in behind the plate when the starting catcher isn’t available, kept each pitcher focused on what needed to be done.
“I just told them to take their time tonight and I reminded them that they’re the pitcher, they control the game,” Waugh said. “They can take as much time as they need to get in their curve, find their arm slot, don’t rush and I don’t give them a sign until I know they’re ready. I don’t want to rush them and to overthink it. I wasn’t surprised that they came back, we had a rough inning.”
Rothman said he was pleased with the win.
“We monopolized tonight and strung some hits together,” Rothman said. “When we did hit, we strung them together, we didn’t just get one hit. Jimmy Lindsey hit that nice gapping double to right center and Zach [Standford] had a couple.
“We’re actually use to coming back like this. It’s nothing new for us. We have a tendency to do well and then dig ourselves a hole and then frantically struggle to get back out. Maybe we do [work well under pressure]. Some people just like get content with a lead, but then they came back and got like five.”
The win was the second in 24 hours for St. Mary’s, posting a 10-9 win over Greenbelt on Tuesday.
“That was a back-andforth game that they ended up going up by three in the top of the seventh and then we had to come back in the bottom and score four to take the win.” Kimmey said.