Sports

Baseball: Late Rally Ends Cougars' Season

Oakton High falls to Stone Bridge in the first round of the Northern Region Tournament

After leading for most of the game, the Oakton High baseball team fell to Stone Bridge in the first round of the Northern Region Tournament on Friday.

A sixth-inning rally put the Bulldogs up 4-3 to end the Cougars' season.

The Cougars took a 3-0 lead with Mason Hauser, Joey Bartosic and Brett Padula crossing the plate in the first, third and fifth innings. But the Bulldogs scored four runs on two hits in the bottom of the sixth, leaving the Cougars little time to make a comeback of their own. 

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"Again, it was just one bad half-inning that did us in," Coach Justin Janis said. "I can't really think of any games this year where we were being beat for a whole game." 

Noting that though Friday's loss will continue to sting for a while, Janis is already excited for his young team to return next year with the lessons learned through this year's topsy-turvy season. 

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"You hope the loss serves as motivation for next year somehow, so we don't put ourselves in this position next year," Janis said. "I think this group of guys can turn this into a positive. I really like the gives we have coming back, but of course we'll miss the seniors next year."

After starting the regular season strong with a 6-1 record, the Cougars went through an 0-5 slump that coincided with the start of Concorde District play. The Cougars turned their season around with a 5-0 run to end district play and won their first round in the Concorde District Tournament. Though Westfield snapped their win streak in the semifinal game, the Cougars earned an automatic berth into the Northern Region Tournament with the semifinal appearance.

"These guys just never gave up all season long. I'm just really proud of this team in how they always came to prepare the right way every single day," Janis said. "It speaks very high of their character, especially the senior class."


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