Boys Baseball

River Hill played its first regular season game at Long Reach on March 22. Gusting winds brought the wind chill down to well below freezing and pitchers had a hard time controlling the ball. In the first inning, the Hawks jumped out to a 10 run lead. Lead-off batter Ben Trapuzzano walked, followed by singles from Brian Heinz and Justin Bilohlavek. Wes McCoy then doubled. Kevin Marrie reached first on a passed ball third strike and Mike Anton bunted safely. Greg Roach ran for Anton. Dave Marquart pushed in another run with a bases loaded walk, and Scott Curtain drove in two with a single. Jeff Marquart then cleared the bases with a triple and scored when Ben Trapuzzano followed with another triple. Brian Heinz drove Trapuzzano in with his second single of the inning and then stole second. Bilohlavek followed with a double, and a ground out by McCoy scored Heinz. Long Reach got four back in the bottom of the first.

In the top of the second inning, Curtain picked up his second single and advanced to third on a Trapuzzano double. Heinz drove Curtain and Trapuzzano in with his third single. The scrappy Long Reach team scored two more in their end of the second inning, plus five more in the third. The Hawks picked up their last run in the fourth when Heinz collected his fourth single of the game, Justin Bilohlavek reached first on a fielder's choice, was moved to second on a walk by Wes McCoy, and scored on a double by Steve Cornelius. Long Reach tied it up at 13-13 in the fifth with two runs and could have scored again had Trapuzzano, at short, not made a great play on a hard hit ground ball with the bases loaded and forced the lead runner out at home. Kevin Marrie struck out the side in the bottom of the sixth to preserve the tie. Mike Anton threw three innings, and Steve Cornelius two in this chilly game, which will be completed when the teams meet again on April 9.