20 hours Ago By Jacob Steinberg
Marriotts Ridge’s Spencer Grams stood 90 feet from home plate as the potential game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh.When Grams got to third, he talked over the situation with coach Josh Molnar. Molnar trusted Grams, who he inserted earlier in the inning as a pinch runner, telling him: “It’s your call.
If you make a good read, you go.”One pitch later, Grams alertly made that split-second decision and beelined home after Nick Cram’s pitch in the dirt rolled behind Reservoir catcher JJ Castonguay. The ball rolled toward the Reservoir dugout and Grams’ headfirst slide erupted the Mustangs into euphoria, cementing a wild 7-6 come-from-behind win.
“That was pretty cool. I don’t know if I’ll really remember that tomorrow,” Grams joked. “I saw everyone come out.
Jonah [Obitz] was the first one to come up to me, so yeah that was awesome.”Grams’ head-first slide was the final sequence in a chaotic seventh inning where Marriotts Ridge posted four runs after trailing by three. Senior Wyatt Anderson began the seventh-inning rally with tremendous hustle, beating out a softly hit grounder to short.
He later came around to score on a double by Obitz.“Just immediately, I knew this is going to be a good game right when I got on,” Anderson said. “I know these boys.
I know what they’re made of. I knew that our record doesn’t really represent how good of a team we are, and it definitely shows because we just beat the No. 1 team in the county.
I know that we can do this and if we keep this energy going, we can be one of the best in the state, too.”Marriotts Ridge (4-2, 3-0 Summit Division) loaded the bases still trailing by two with one out. Reservoir starter Matthew Russell dug deep and struck out Zach Magee for the second out, but that was his last batter due to pitch count limitations.
Malcolm Parson then stepped to the plate with a chance to be a hero. Parson, who struck out in his previous at-bat, and with the Mustangs down to their last strike, hit a grounder up the middle. The ball rolled under Russell’s glove at shortstop and into center field, tying the game at 6.
“Stay alive, anything to stay alive,” Parson said of his approach. “Foul off every close pitch and take the bad ones. I was so excited as I was running to first.
But at the same time, I thought, ‘Oh shoot, I’m about to be thrown out,’ so I was still hustling.”Marriotts Ridge’s comeback seemed far-fetched for much of the afternoon. Russell continued the dominance from his previous two shutout starts and no-hit the Mustangs for the first five innings.
He was consistently ahead in counts and struck out seven. However, Anderson did a great job of quelling Reservoir’s lineup with 11 strikeouts of his own.Related ArticlesNo.
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1 McDonogh girls lacrosse takes down No. 13 Notre Dame Prep, 8-6Despite that, Anderson’s defense let him down as several errors created unearned runs and the Mustangs trailed 5-0 after five innings. They never were discouraged and began chipping away at the lead in the sixth.
Marriotts Ridge scored three runs on two hits, highlighted by Sid Thomas’ two-run single. However, Reservoir (5-1, 2-1 Summit) added to its lead in the seventh, capitalizing on two more Marriotts Ridge errors.Yet, the Mustangs never lost hope, and the comeback was on from there.
A blend of timely hitting, smart base running and keen situational awareness propelled the Mustangs and showed off their collective resilience. A young team with only two seniors, Marriotts Ridge is entering a grueling stretch in the heart of its county schedule and knows that the resolve it showed Wednesday will be key to reach its potential as a group.“I don’t know if I’ve ever been more proud of a group of kids,” Molnar said.
“That was fantastic. They did everything that we asked. Even the first five innings, we were attacking the fastball.
I know some guys struck out, but we had the right approach the whole time, and they executed even though we didn’t get any hits until late. They did everything we asked. Kids coming off the bench to score the game-winning run.
Just the most perfect last two innings I could imagine.”Re: 011 300 1- 6MR: 000 003 4- 7WP: JP Yeich; LP: Matt Russell.2B: MR: Jonah Obitz; Re: Jason Hunt.
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