Sports

Baseball: Cougars Give Huskies First Loss at Home

Oakton stretches win streak to seven games heading into final week of regular season

Not only did Flint Hill enter Saturday's game against Oakton High School undefeated at home, but they entered winning those games by an average of about 13 runs.

But Oakton boasts an impressive road record: Their only two away losses occurred during their spring break tournament in South Carolina.

In the end, it was the Cougars who kept their own streak going, traveling a mere 2 miles to Flint Hill to notch a 10-4 win — their seventh straight.

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With the Huskies swinging for seven hits versus the Cougars' nine, the teams stayed competitive offensively. The Huskies' loss boiled down to inconsistent pitching: Four Flint Hill pitchers walked nine batters and beaned two. The Cougars took advantage of the base runners, eventually scoring five of them.

"We knew it was going to be a good game, and it was," said Tom Verbanic, Flint Hill's head coach. "We didn't throw strikes to start with and that hurts bad. But you know, other than that, we played pretty good."

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Justin Janis, head coach for Oakton, agreed the game was competitive though the score may not reflect that.

"Some of our guys have played with some of their players in summer ball and other leagues, so we knew we had a good competition ahead of us," said Justin Janis, Oakton's head coach. "And man, some of the hitters in their lineup are just great. They've got a really great hitting team. We were expecting a tough game."

Oakton's Chad Carroll started the Cougars off strong, leading off with a double — his first of three — to center field. Carroll advanced to third on a passed ball, then scored on Brian Burns' caught line drive to center fielder Nick Bazzarone. Luke Willis singled, Ty Carroll reached on an error, and Aaron Rochkind and Mitch Carroll walked — scoring Willis — giving the Cougars a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the first.

Behind starting pitcher Walker Webster — who gave up five hits, struck out one and pitched into seven groundouts, including one double play — the Cougars kept the Huskies scoreless until the fourth inning. But at that point the Huskies were trailing 6-0 after an RBI single from Chris Hanson in the second, and a three-run home run from Willis in the fourth.

Flint Hill first baseman Michael Palma led off the bottom of the fourth with a solo home run over the left field wall to score the Huskies' first run. Then Harrison Gray followed up a single from Jared Knoll with a homer over the center field wall to cut the deficit in half. The Huskies score their last run in the fifth after a throwing error to first allowed shortstop David Belt to cross the plate.

The Cougars kept building on their lead. Taiyo Francis came off the bench and hit a triple to knock in Willis and Hanson in the sixth. In the seventh, Willis and Hanson would each hit RBI singles to bring the final score to 10-4.

Willis led the game with four RBI, and tied teammate Chad Carroll in hits with three.

"They both had very good games today," Janis said. "We're very lucky to coach guys like that. The particular talent of those two is a lot of fun to coach."

Despite the loss, Verbanic liked what he saw from his team.

"We made plays we needed to make. Brought the infield in and got a guy at the plate. We battled at the plate well. We had some good hits and swings, and they had some guys make great plays," Verbanic said. "There's a lot of positives. It's jut a matter of little things that don't hurt you in blowouts catch up with you right now."

Though he would've liked a different outcome, Verbanic thinks only good can come out of facing a team playing at such a high level.

"We'd love to play more nonconference games like this throughout the season," Verbanic said. "Playing a game like this can only help us heading into next week with Potomac coming up and then the tournament. We love playing good teams."

Both Flint Hill and Oakton will finish up the regular season next week. Flint Hill is currently tied with Maret at the top of the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference with one game left. Oakton stands alone at the top of the Concorde District with two games left.

Flint Hill (9-2 conference record) next plays at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at home against rival Potomac School. The MAC tournament begins May 14.

Oakton (7-1 district record) next plays at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Centreville and will finish the regular season at home Friday against Westfield.


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