'Jacks advance in 17-inning marathon
HAGERSTOWN – It had been a frustrating day at the plate for both Dillon Shaw and Casey Joseph – but that frustration quickly turned to elation in the bottom of the 17th inning Friday afternoon against Hagerstown Community College.
Shaw and Joseph – who started the inning a combined 1-for-14 – teamed up to produce the winning run in second-seeded Chesapeake College's 9-8 victory over the third-seeded Hawks in their NJCAA Division I Region XX baseball tournament opener. Shaw led off with a single and Joseph hit a booming, one-out double to center that chased Shaw home with the winning run to complete the Skipjacks' game-long comeback.
"I knew I was due for a hit," said Joseph. "I was up there sitting on a fastball. When I got it, I just tried to drive it as far as I could."
"The only time we had the lead was on the last play of the game," observed Chesapeake head coach Frank Szymanski after his team moved into the winners' bracket finals of the double-elimination tournament. "This team wants to compete – they just refused to lose."
Chesapeake (29-16) will face the winner of the other first-round game between top-seeded Potomac State College (35-14) and fourth-seeded Harford Community College (2-50). Potomac State led Harford, 6-3 in the sixth inning, when Friday's second game was suspended due to rain.
The suspended Potomac State-Harford contest, Friday's first losers' bracket game, and all of Saturday's games were wiped out due to rain. Officials hope to restart the tournament on Sunday, with the Skipjacks tentatively scheduled to play the Potomac State-Harford winner at 3 p.m.
For their part, the Skipjacks can probably use the rest.
Chesapeake battled back from 2-0, 4-2, 5-4, 6-5, 7-6 and 8-7 deficits, twice trailed in extra innings, and moved on despite being down to its final strike in the 16th. The Skipjacks used four pitchers – including two of its top starters – and overcame leaving 22 runners on base.
Szymanski, in his 14th season as the Skipjacks' head coach, said the circumstances surrounding Friday's win made it particularly special.
"Winning the region, winning the district and winning a game in the World Series were all memorable," said Szymanski, recalling Chesapeake's run to the 2005 Division II World Series. "But this (victory) is obviously in the top five."
"We just never gave up," said Joseph. "It was back and forth and we just kept fighting. We were trying our hardest to get it done."
Starter Tyler Tobin (five strikeouts) went the first 6 2/3 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on four hits, two walks and three hit batsmen. Jack Wood, who might have been a Game 2 starter in the tournament, went the next seven innings, giving up two runs on six hits, three walks and a hit batsman with two strikeouts.
"Tobin and Wood did a great job keeping us in the game," said Szymanski. "Jack also had some outstanding defensive plays fielding his position."
Scott Abt (one walk, one strikeout) allowing a run on four hits in 2 1/3 innings before R.J. Angermier (2-0) pitched a perfect 17th to earn the win. While the 17-inning game burned up a good deal of the Skipjacks' pitching staff, Szymanski said his team will answer the bell when the tournament hopefully resumes on Sunday.
"We're running thin, but we have Jimmy Wix (5-3) ready to go when our game is called," said Szymanski.
Hagerstown combined two walks and an error to take a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh. Chesapeake retied the game as Kam Stewart (4-for-7, two runs, two RBI, two steals, two walks) singled in the tying run with two outs in the eighth.
The Hawks retook the lead in the top of the ninth on a run-scoring double by Garrett Sprankle (4-for-8, two runs), but Hagerstown relievers hit one batter and walked three others to force in the tying run with no outs in the bottom of the ninth. Hagerstown reliever Thomas Rose then struck out J.D. Correa, induced Joseph (single, double) into a grounder that forced Blake Musser at the plate, and retired Jordan Gowe on a fielder's-choice grounder to end the threat.
Hagerstown took the lead with runs in the top of the 14th and 16th innings, but the Skipjacks retied the game on both occasions with Danny Allen (3-for-6, three sacrifices) laying down critical sacrifices in both innings. Musser created a 7-7 tie with a long sacrifice fly to left in the 14th, and Rose balked with two outs and an 0-2 count on Brice Manship in the 16th to score Gowe (three runs) from third.
Notes: Jacob Townsend with the fourth Skipjack with a multiple-hit game, going 2-for-3 and scoring a run.