Boys Baseball

On April 17, under a 90 degree sun at home, River Hill edged Baltimore Sun-ranked Howard 9-8 in eight innings. The Hawks suffered through another shakey first inning when Howard scored 3 runs on 2 hits, 2 errors, and a hit batter. Things could have been worse had starter Steve Cornelius not picked off a runner on first for the third out. The Hawks rallied in the third for 5 runs. Jeff Marquart led off with a double and went to third on a Ben Trapuzzano single. Ben then stole second and both scored on DH Dan Konapelsky's double. Dan moved up to third and scored when Brian Heinz grounded to first and the first baseman was late to the plate with his throw. Heinz reached second safely and Brian Bednarczyk first on a bobbled ground ball. Both then advanced on a double steal. Steve Cornelius drove in Heinz and Bednarczyk with a double. River Hill picked up a sixth run in the fourth when Jeff Marquart led off with a single, but could advance no farther than third when Ben Trapuzzano bounced a ground rule double over the fence. Konapelsky got an RBI when Jeff scored on a ground ball.

Howard had another big inning in the top of the fifth scoring 5 runs on 4 hits. Cornelius worked 5 innings, giving up 8 hits, and striking out 6. The Hawks trailed until the sixth, when Ken Gilliam led off with a walk, and advanced to third on Jeff Marquart's third hit of the day, a ground rule double. Konapelsky drove Gilliam in with a single and sent Marquart to third. Brian Heinz sent a first pitch sacrifice fly deep to centerfield to score Jeff from third with the tying run. In the fifth, Scott Curtin went to second base replacing Bednarczyk and Curt Gilliam replaced Dave Marquart at third. Ben Trapuzzano moved from short to the mound in the sixth, with Cornelius going to short. Ben gave up only 1 hit and no runs in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, with 3 strikeouts.

The game stayed tied, 8-8, until the bottom half of the eighth. With one out, Trapuzzano reached first on a walk and stole second. He went to third on Konapelsky's third hit, a single. Brian Heinz loaded the bases when he was hit by a pitch. After a second out pop up to first, Wes McCoy, on a 2-2 count, rolled a slow grounder to short. As Heinz ran toward second, the shortstop rushed his throw a little and the ball went wide of the bag, allowing Ben to score the winning run.

Just as important as the Hawks production of 9 runs off 11 hits was the outstanding behind-the-plate work of catcher Nick Madiou. Nick threw out 2 Howard runners trying to steal second base and, just as important, blocked literally dozens of balls in the dirt.