COLUMBIA, Md. – The Hood College baseball team is off to a hot start in conference play, defeating Stevenson University 7-3 to sweep the "Battle of I-70" for the first time in the history of the rivalry.
At the Plate
AJ Haines (Arlington, Va./Bishop O'Connell) went 2-3 with two walks at the plate, hitting a double and swiping two bags.
Sean Seely (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) batted 2-4 with a double, scoring twice.
Kamari Chisolm (Gainesville, Va./Bishop O'Connell) got on base twice and stole four bases.
On the Mound
Aaron Heller (Philadelphia, Pa./Jack Barrack Hebrew Acad.) picked up his first win of the season, allowing just two earned runs while striking out four batters in 4.1 innings.
From the Bullpen
Mason Potter (Ashburn, Va./Stone Bridge) threw 3.2 innings of scoreless ball in relief, striking out five batters while allowing just two hits.
How it Happened
Despite going through the first inning with relative ease, after getting the first two outs of the second, Stevenson strung together a double and a deep single to jump out into the lead early.
After shaking off the early setback, Hood went to work in the bottom of the third, with Seely leading off with a double before
Rhett Robbins (Frederica, Del./Lake Forest) moved him to third with a single. A hard-hit ball to the third baseman made the Mustangs take the force out at first and allow Seely to score, but a double from Haines immediately after put the Blazers ahead 2-1.
Heller sat the next three Stevenson batters down in order, and again the first two runners for Hood got on base in the bottom of the inning. A deep double from
Quade Gannon (Felton, Del./Lake Forest) scored the runners on base and forced a pitching change, but the next pitcher loaded the bases and walked in a run to make it a 5-1 game.
Stevenson refused to give up though, with the second batter in the top of the fifth hitting a bomb to left field before a sacrifice fly drove in another and made it 5-3 before the Blazers could get out of the inning.
Seely decided to make the bottom of the sixth inning his time to shine, as the junior led off the inning with a single before stealing second and third, and misplay by the first baseman on a sharply hit ball allowed both Seely to score and Chisolm to be safe at first. Although Chisolm eventually moved to third with two outs, the next batter would fly out to end Hood's threat.
Potter ran into some trouble in the seventh inning when three of the first four Mustang batters got on, but was able to force the next batter to pop out and got the next batter swinging for an exciting way to get out of the jam.
From that point, Stevenson would not threaten much more, and after the Blazers added another run in the eighth thanks to a lightning-fast Chisolm stealing home,
Declan Musselman (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) would close the game out and give Hood the 7-3 win.
For the Opponent
Zach Mayza went 3-4 with a home run.
Charlie Wentker took the loss, allowing four runs in 3.1 innings.
Notes
The Blazers improve to 7-9 (3-0), while the Mustangs drop to 6-4 (0-3).
Up Next
Hood travels to Baltimore, Maryland for a game against Notre Dame of Maryland University Tuesday, March 17 at 3 p.m.
