Boys Baseball

River Hill outlasted a talented Hammond team, 8-6, on April 12 at Hammond High School. In a game where there was a combined total for both teams of 23 walks, 23 runners stranded on base, and a couple of unusual plays, the sun came out late in the game and shone on the Hawks in the end.

Hammond started their ace, Anders, who threw pretty well, except for the Hawks 6-run third inning. In the third, Brian Heinz led off with a single between first and second, Justin Bilohlavek was hit by a pitch, and then Wes McCoy lifted a fly ball over the fence for a three-run homer. With two outs in the same inning, Dave Marquart drew a walk, as did Jeff Marquart. Lead-off hitter Ben Trapuzzano then took a 2-1 pitch high over the fence, at about the same spot Wes hit his. Ben also picked up two singles this game to go with his homer.

The Bears got one of their own in the bottom of the third and then five more in the sixth to tie things up. It was not until the top of the eighth that the Hawks touched Hammond's relievers for 2 more runs. With one out, Heinz took 4 straight balls for a walk and Bilohlavek followed with another walk. Bryan Bednarczyk drilled a 3-1 pitch into the gap for a double that scored two. In one of the unusual plays of the game, Bednarczyk was called out at third when he easily stole the base, but batter interference was called on the Hawks after a strikeout. The other bizarre play occured in the sixth when, with Bilohlavek on first, a bad hop on a hard ground ball off the bat of Bednarczyk jumped up and bounced off shortstop Joey Benedetti, went right to the Hammond second baseman, who stepped on second and threw to first for the double play.

Steve Cornelius, who started for River Hill, went five and a third innings, giving up only 3 hits. Kevin Marrie came in for the Hawks in relief and registered 2 strikeouts in the sixth and 1 in the seventh. In the bottom of the eighth, Hammond had the bases loaded with two outs and Kevin struck out the final batter.

This is the second straight game in which the Hawks have beaten a team ranked in the Baltimore Sun.