The Hawks go down swinging vs. Potomac State

May 16, 2005|by JACK HILL III/Staff Correspondent

Potomac State capped its perfect run through the Region XX Baseball Tournament with an 11-9 victory over Hagerstown Community College in Sunday's championship game at HCC.

The Catamounts (29-11) went 3-0 in the tournament, including two victories over the Hawks, to win their fifth tournament title in the last six years.

"It wasn't easy," Potomac State coach Doug Little said. "Hagerstown is a good team and it is hard to beat a team in their own town. They are well-coached. That helped us to score 10 runs during the first four innings. That took some pressure off. You can't have enough runs in a game like this. You saw how it ended up."

The Hawks (30-20), who went 2-2 in the tournament, reduced an 11-5 deficit to 11-9 with four runs in the top of the ninth inning as Andrew Murray scored on a wild pitch and Lowell Coats clubbed a three-run double to left. Coats took third when Drew Counselman singled to left to put the tying run on first.

But Catamounts closer Zach Thomas came in and stopped the rally by getting the next batter to ground out to first, picking up the save.

"I am proud of our guys for the way they battled right to the end," HCC coach Scott Jennings said. "They never gave up. We were six runs down going into the last inning and we ended up with the tying run on base."

Potomac State starting pitcher Joe Stupka threw 138 pitches over seven innings to get the win. Stupka fanned 11, while allowing only three hits and three earned runs.

Bill Wooten and Ryan Anderson banged out three hits each for Potomac State, while J.T. Osburn had three RBI and three runs scored and Wooten added three runs and an RBI.

Potomac State led the whole game, getting four runs in the bottom of the first.

HCC got three runs in the top of the second on a solo homer to center by Matt Tedrick and a two-run triple to center by Nathan Himes to narrow the gap to 4-3.

However, Potomac State answered with three runs in the bottom of the second to build a 7-3 advantage.

The Hawks scored a run in the top of the fourth, but the Catamounts responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning to increase their advantage to 10-4.

HCC got a run in the top of the sixth, but Potomac State also got one in the bottom of the inning to take an 11-5 lead.

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