Arundel the ultimate opportunists
Wildcats take advantage of North County errors
By the time Arundel baseball posted its third run of the third inning Monday at Joe Cannon Stadium, North County had accumulated more errors than anyone had hits.
That had already proven to be an unfortunate bug for the Knights, who committed five errors in their opener against Westminster, they committed four in a 5-1 loss to Arundel.
It was also something the Wildcats (1-1) would not do in their second game, a positive omen to coach Frank Hood.
“We fielded the ball. We had one error — catcher’s interference — whereas we had seven the other day,” Hood said. “We really worked on a lot of pressure, defensive situation stuff.”
Arundel junior Rowland Thursby lurched home when Knights catcher Logan O’Neil’s throw sailed over third base. Then, Grayson O’Donnell popped what should have been the second out to center field, instead, the ball ricocheted off center fielder Nic Burton’s glove and Nick Bilheimer scored for a 3-0 lead.
Soon after, Austin Eldredge earned a legitimate spot on first via single, but another North County error helped O’Donnell home. Passed balls littered in between the official errors.
“You got to take advantage when you get an opportunity,” Hood said. “You get a good pitcher on, you got to figure out how to scrap, get anything you can — especially when the county is so up this year.”
Meanwhile, Arundel’s Tha’Mon McGriff had North County hitless.
“We’re inexperienced. They’re seeing different pitching and situations than from the JV level,” Barton said, “and we just got to get more experienced. We’re working hard to get there.”
North County’s Colin Voss finished with 4 ⅔ innings pitched, allowing two hits and five walks while striking out four. A “bulldog on the mound,” per Hood, the Arundel coach knew well what the North County pitcher was capable of, moving into North County’s ace role.
But his relief didn’t settle things down. A passed ball scored Cayden Devers to make it 5-0.
North County still couldn’t sneak so much as a single off McGriff, who brewed his no-hitter through 5 ⅔ innings with seven strikeouts. He knew it was happening, he said. He also knew his pitch count was dipping deep into the 80s.
of yourself,” Senzel said. “You try to dream big, but, I mean, we’re playing in the big leagues.”
Thomas and Senzel played on the same travel team growing up in Tennessee, but the stuff that they still remember isn’t just what happened on game days. Instead, they reminisce about the Wiffle ball in a hotel parking lot or the trek to Orlando for a tournament — a trip that included more than just baseball.
What was the name of that water park again?
“Blizzard Beach?” Senzel said.
“Blizzard Beach, yeah,” Thomas replied. “There was, like, some crazy waterslide —”
Said Senzel: “Summit
Plummet. Yeah, I did it.”
“Yeah, I was too scared to go,” Thomas added before both broke into laughter.
The pair played a few seasons of travel ball before they went their separate ways. But they stayed in each others’ orbit in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Senzel, who is a few months older than Thomas, headed to high school first. Matt Buckner, who would eventually become his varsity coach, remembers Senzel as a skinny kid who tried out for Farragut Academy’s team as a freshman. Senzel ended up on junior varsity as starting shortstop. And slowly, Buckner started to hear more about him.
“I just remember our JV guys saying, ‘Hey, Coach, this kid’s really good,’ ” Buckner said. “‘Like, he does things so easy, and, like, it’s really good.’ And then by the time he was a sophomore, he had grown a bunch, and it kind of took off from there.”
Farragut’s rival in Knoxville was Bearden High, where Jack Tate was the coach. Tate remembers seeing Thomas, an eighthgrader at the time, send a ball over the fence and into the trees during a tournament. That’s the moment he knew Thomas was special.
When Thomas came to fall camp later that year, Tate told Bearden’s upperclassmen to treat him like he’d be on the team, because Thomas had “a maturity about him that most freshmen didn’t have,” Tate said. He started immediately.
“You could just tell he was one of those guys that you don’t see very often,” Tate said. “And I remember telling a couple older guys, ‘We’re going to watch this guy on TV one day.’ ”
The two became key figures on their respective teams. Senzel won a state championship with Farragut as a sophomore, his first season on the varsity team. The next season, Thomas and Bearden headed to the state championship game. Senzel helped lift Farragut back to the state title game his senior season.
The rivalry between the schools was friendly but competitive, fitting for a matchup between Thomas and Senzel. Buckner was coach at Bearden before heading to Farragut. Tate now works at Farragut with Buckner. In fact, the teams were so close that Buckner can remember Thomas hitting in the cages at Farragut, alongside his supposed rivals.
“You’re always more competitive with your buddies,” Thomas said.
“Yeah, I don’t think it was too fiery, though,” Senzel retorted.
“If we played on a Friday night, we were all at my house after the game. You know?” Thomas said.
Senzel and Thomas came close to being college teammates, too. Senzel signed a letter-of-intent to play for Georgia, then flipped to Tennessee. That’s where Thomas eventually committed, too. But in 2014, his senior year at Bearden, the Toronto Blue Jays drafted Thomas in the fifth round.
“I think we always worked hard when people didn’t see,” Senzel said. “And I think we just continued to get better and better.”
Thomas never thought about getting this far, about having fans outside the dugout wearing his jersey or asking for his autograph.
Senzel planned to play until he was told to stop.
They have faced each other before in the majors, with Senzel on the Reds and Thomas on the St. Louis Cardinals, then on the Nationals after he was traded to Washington. “So you just think that’s the coolest thing ever,” Thomas said.
And then you get here, in West Palm Beach, where their lockers were next to each other in the Nationals’ spring training clubhouse — two kids from Tennessee, who shared Wiffle ball and Blizzard Beach and high school nights, with more still ahead.
“Who would’ve thought we’d still be doing it, you know, 20 years later?” Thomas said.
“Yeah,” Senzel said, “we didn’t think we would be here.”