La Plata baseball run-rules Great Mills
Calvert throws one-hit shutout versus Hornets
La Plata head baseball coach John Childers has already seen Ryan Calvert show a lot of promise on the hill.
In his first-ever varsity start he delivered a no-hitter on March 27 with nine strikeouts in a 7-0 win at Leonardtown.
And in the La Plata-hosted baseball tournament on Saturday afternoon, the freshman starting pitcher was all but dominant once again, throwing a one-hit, nowalk, eight-strikeout performance in a 10-0, five-inning shutout over Great Mills.
The tournament was set to have three teams total with each team playing twice, but Parkdale of Prince George’s County, Childers’ alma mater, decided not to attend due to scheduling conflicts.
La Plata is back in action at 4:30 p.m. today when it hosts St. Charles in a Southern Maryland Athletic Conference Potomac Division contest.
“We needed this win because we’ve struggled early in the season and it feels good to get some wins on spring break,” said Calvert, who also had two hits — one of them a double — and two RBIs. “I just focused on mixing up my pitches and pounding the zone, just throwing strikes to keep the hitters off balance.”
Thus far on the season, Calvert has thrown 18 2/3 innings with 26 strikeouts and allowed just one run on three hits with two shutouts in three starts. He pitched a no-decision in a 4-3 loss at McDonough on April 8.
The Warriors (6-4 overall), who finished with 17
hits in the game, scored five runs in the third, one in the fourth and four more in the fifth to cap off the game’s scoring.
After losing four starters from a year ago, defending Class 2A state champion La Plata is working on getting to proper form as it currently is on a three-game win streak.
“We are trying to establish a level of play a lot higher than we’ve had earlier in the season and it feels good to pick up where we left off against Boys’ Latin and that is a very good baseball team,” said Childers referring to the 5-3 road win over the Baltito more-based private school April 12. “Because we are continuing play crisp baseball and our pitchers throwing strikes and our defense is making plays it feels really good.”
Leading La Plata in Saturday’s win was sophomore Dean Kirby, who was 4 for 4 with three RBIs, including a double. Senior Jake Hanks was 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI and two runs scored.
Brett Pilkerton collected two hits with an RBI, including a triple with two runs scored. Matt Schnoor finished with two hits and an RBI and Nick Steury finished with two hits and two RBIs. Quinn Krahling delivered a hit with two runs scored in the game.
“It remains to be seen, but I think we have plenty of talent, if we play together, we can play with anybody,” said Childers. “It is up to my guys to continue to jell and play for each other. If we do that, it is no telling how far we can go.”
Great Mills (3-7), which used three pitchers in the game, took on visiting Westlake in a SMAC crossover game on Tuesday and is scheduled to take on host Patuxent at 4:30 p.m. today.
“La Plata has a great program, so we know what to expect when we play them,”Great Mills head coach Kevin Rodgers said. “Their pitcher came out and threw strikes and kept us off balance. And a big part of the game today was that they hit and we didn’t.”