Three-for-all to decide American Legion
A roundup of the week in summer baseball
With one month of the American Legion baseball season in the books, the favorite to win the Montgomery Division regular season title and capture the top seed for the end-of-season, four-team tournament is no one.
Through Thursday games, a three-way race for first existed between Laurel Post 60 (12-5), Cissel Saxon Post 41 (9-3) and Sandy Spring Post 68 (12-5). Post 41 owns two wins over Post 60 with one game remaining, but lost once to Sandy Spring and has a suspended game and another regular season game left against Post 68.
Post 60 and Post 68 split their first two meetings and will play again Thursday at Olney Manor Regional Park.
That leaves traditional heavyweights Damascus Post 171 (8-7) and Gaithersburg Post 295 (9-8) left to vie for the final spot. Gaithersburg Post 104 (5-10), which reached the Maryland State American Legion tournament final a year ago, is three games behind in that race.
What was to be the team's greatest strength, pitching, has been sporadic aside from Alex Hindman (2-0, 2.10 earned-run average). Post 104 arms sported a collective, 5.28 ERA through July 1.
- The eighth annual Crab Claw Classic, a clash of the top underclass high school players from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and North Carolina, will be played Saturday, July 31 at Joe Cannon Stadium in Hanover.
A day earlier, players will try out for the game in a combine that runs 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
Recent alumni of the game include Good Counsel's Matt Kohn and George Smith and Sherwood rising senior Will Bouey. The latter will pitch at University of Maryland after his senior season, while Kohn (Johns Hopkins) and Smith (LaSalle, Pa.) are off to their destinations this fall.
- Darnestown native Mike Rozak, a senior at Maryland, was named to the 2010 All-Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Baseball Team, as announced recently by Commissioner John D. Swofford.
It was the first selection for Rozak, a dual major in physiology/neurobiology and criminology. Rozak was also named to the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District First Team earlier this year.
To be eligible for consideration, a student-athlete must have earned a 3.0 grade-point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.0 cumulative average during his academic career.
Rozak appeared in 51 games, batting .234 with 16 runs scored this past spring.