Baseball: Huskies Advance to MAC Championship

Flint Hill and Potomac, rivals in any sport, faced each other in baseball's Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference semifinal Monday. The Huskies and the Panthers against each other, and each wanted to be the team on the favorable side of the tiebreaker.

Despite being outhit 9-4, the Huskies squeaked out a 5-4 win to advance to the MAC championship Wednesday against the winner of the Maret versus Sidwell Friends game.

But the Huskies are seeking two titles simultaneously this week, rotating between the MAC tournament and the state championship tournament.

Head coach Tom Verbanic chose not to put his No. 1 pitcher Jared Knoll (1.54 ERA) on the mound in the MAC semifinal game against Potomac on Tuesday, saving his arm for the first round of the state championship game Tuesday against Benedictine in Richmond. Instead, senior Rylan Grosh (2.55 ERA) threw for the Huskies, notching four strikeouts and giving up six hits, two for home runs, in four innings.

Grosh and his Huskies defense started out strong, facing the minimum six batters in two innings. Offensively, the Huskies struck early with three runs in the first inning.

The inning started with a line drive single from David Belt (.435) and a walk to Calvin Baxter (.322) and Michael Palma (.410) to load the bases. Then Nick Bazzarone (.333) hit a slow grounder just far enough off the pitcher's mound to allow everyone to reach safely, scoring Belt for the first run of the game. Panthers pitcher Matt Giordano struck out the next two batters, only to have Bhendari Moore (.379) hit a two-run line drive single to bring the score to 3-0.

The Huskies' last two runs came out of errors from the Panthers, a passed ball in the second inning and a throwing error to first base in the fourth.

But the Panthers put up a fight.

They started to come back in the third inning, with Jack O'Shea and Conor McNerney hitting homers for three runs.

Then in the fifth, they started with two ground ball singles, after which Verbanic decided to bring Bazzarone from center field to take the mound. The Panthers' Chris Lee had a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners to second and third, then McNerney notched his third RBI for the Panthers' last run with a fielder's choice ground ball.

As the Panthers continued to fight hard, things never got more tense for the Huskies than in the seventh inning. It started with a groundout, but then Edwin Kuhn hit a line drive single to left field. Lee hit a ball in the air to right fielder Baxter, who let the ball take a hop before fielding it. He was able to throw out the lead runner at second base to give the Huskies two outs with one runner on.

Then Bazzarone threw a wild pitch to McNerney, which allowed Kuhn to advance to second, and Verbanic headed to the mound to have a chat with his pitcher and catcher. Bazzarone stayed in the game, and McNerney was intentionally walked.

"With first base open, there was no reason to throw to him. That was an easy decision," Verbanic said. "He's a great hitter and he's hurt us a couple times in the past with home runs."

The Panthers had a chance to tie the game when the next batter hit a single to left field, but Kuhn was held at third leaving the bases loaded with two outs for Johnny Read, who had popped out, hit into a double play and grounded out in his previous at-bats. He again grounded out, and the Huskies won 5-4.

"I would never second guess a coach," Verbanic said. "They know we have our best arm in left field, so the third base coach probably just kept that in mind."

When Potomac had bases loaded with two outs, Bazzarone knew the Panthers had the potential take the lead.

"I was just trying to get out of there," Bazzarone said. "I knew I just had to get outs."

The Huskies will play in the first round of the state tournament Tuesday at Benedictine High School in Richmond. The MAC championship game will be played Wednesday at Flint Hill.

Verbanic said he is continually impressed with the Huskies' fight.

"We sometimes do things that don't help us, but these guys stay in it," Verbanic said. "That'll help us moving forward."