'Jacks erase four-run deficit, win eighth straight

GEORGETOWN, Del. – When a baseball team is on a roll, allowing a five-run first inning and falling four runs behind are merely speed bumps on the road to victory.  At least that's how Tuesday's game at Delaware Tech played out.

The Skipjacks (17-8) pounded out 17 hits and Jack Wood (3-1) threw six scoreless innings after a rocky first as Chesapeake College overcame Del Tech, 9-5, for its eighth straight win.

"Our mentality and our attitude right now is that we're just going to play relaxed and refuse to lose," said Chesapeake head coach Frank Szymanski.  "Once Jack Wood settled down, he was just unhittable.  He completely dominated the game and defensively we played great behind him."

Danny Allen (two runs) went 4-for-4 while Matt Schotanus (run, three RBI) and Lane Farmer (run) each had three hits for the Skipjacks.  Dillon Shaw (run) and Jordan Gowe each had two hits and two RBI.

Delaware Tech (4-9) took a 5-1 lead with a five-run first built around Christian Brigham's two-run double and a two-run homer by C.J. Pleasants (3-for-4).  The Skipjacks got back in the game with two runs in the second and one in the third to pull within 5-4 before taking the lead for good with a two-run sixth.

Casey Joseph tripled in one run and scored the other on a Gowe single during the two-run second inning, and Schotanus singled, stole second and scored Chesapeake's third-inning run on J.D. Correa's hit to make it 5-4.

Joseph reached on an error leading off the visitor's sixth.  Two outs later, Kam Stewart walked and Schotanus delivered a single that scored Joseph with the tying run and moved Stewart to third.

Schotanus then tried to steal second, with Del Tech catcher Mike Solomon's throw to second going into center field for an error that plated Stewart with the go-ahead run.

"Our base running was outstanding against Del Tech," said Szymanski.  "We also came up with some big, two-out hits."

The Skipjacks broke the game open with a three-run ninth inning as Shaw tripled in two runs and scored on Gowe's second hit of the game.

The Skipjacks, the last unbeaten (6-0) in the Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference, step back into league action Friday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader at CCBC-Dundalk.

"We know things are going good now and we've got to keep them going," said Szymanski.