Post 104 makes an early statement

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo charlie shoemaker⁄the gazette Gaithersburg Post 104’s Bobby Kim is out by a step at first base as Gaithersburg Post 295’s Mike Celenza takes the throw. Post 104 won handily, 14-4.

‘‘We have a lot of good players on this team and it’s a challenge to do well when everyone expects you to,” Gaithersburg Post 104 manager Joe Stoltz said. ‘‘It is our challenge to do our best every game, and hopefully it will come out right.”

In this game, it did. Allred, a right-hander who just finished his freshman season at Montgomery College-Rockville, pitched 3 1⁄3 scoreless innings, and Post 104 came back with a six-run rally in the bottom of the third to fuel a 14-4 win over Post 295. Post 104 (3-0) also put on a power display of its own, as Alex Bastow and Matt Sweeney each hit home runs, helping their team build the 10-run margin that ended the game after six innings due to the mercy rule.

‘‘It’s big for our confidence,” said Bastow, who lifted a high fastball from Gaithersburg Post 295 starter Charlie Cononie over the left-field fence for a two-run shot in the fourth inning. ‘‘We lost to them [in the county playoffs] last year, and no one knew how good they’d be. It feels good knowing that we’re better than them right now. I’m sure they’ll make changes.”

In fact, lineup changes were part of Post 295’s (2-2) undoing in this game. The three-time defending county champions lost 11 players from a team that won state titles in 2003 and 2004, and has also been bit by an early-season injury bug. Several players on the field were playing out of position, and in the third inning those stopgap measures caught up with them. Cononie opened the frame by walking Post 104 catcher Willie Greenberg, but then enticed Greg Dunn to ground out. However, the next batter, Dennis Shoomaker, reached base on a ground ball that went through Celenza’s legs, and two batters later, Bastow got the first of his three runs batted in by lining a double to left field. Before the inning was over, Post 295 had uncharacteristically committed six errors, and Post 104 sent 10 batters to the plate in taking a lead that it would not relinquish.

‘‘That was a bad inning,” Gaithersburg Post 295 manager Rick Price said. ‘‘It was a bad inning that happens every once in a while, but when it happens against a team like [Post] 104 then you’re going to play a short game and go home. You can’t give those guys extra outs and win. Luckily, the playoffs don’t start tomorrow, but we’ll get it together.”

Even as they left the field as victors, Gaithersburg Post 104 seemed cognizant of that fact as well. Though Post 104 started the game strong — Cornish retired the first six batters he faced, and RBI singles by Austin Hurd and Peter Barrett in the second inning got them on the board — the offensive prowess that Gaithersburg Post 295 showed in one half-inning was enough to dampen celebrations. The road to the state playoffs still passes through Post 295, and the players wearing Post 104’s jerseys know it.

‘‘That 295 team is a great team, and they have a lot of great players,” Stoltz said. ‘‘I have a lot of respect for them, and I don’t anything for granted. They will be back.”