Under the watchful eye of head coach John Dowling, McLean’s baseball diamond was shining a bright green under the blazing sun of a precocious spring day as the Highlanders and the Gonzaga Eagles faced off to open the 2024 varsity baseball season. The contest was the third straight between the two schools, with both of the prior seasons opening with the matchup. McLean was victorious in the prior match, winning on a walk-off from then-senior Jakob Luu. The Highlanders knew they were in for a tough matchup against the private school, led by pitcher Jack Feehery, a Duke University commit.
“They [have] a [strong pitcher] out there, but we’ve been working, we’ve been practicing for this guy,” senior outfielder Yuta Shimo said.
In the preseason, the Highlanders took a trip to Lake Anna, taking part in a tournament with local teams. The trip strengthened their bond as teammates and prepared them for the difficult opening matchup.
“Playing travel baseball, you really play a lot of good competition,” Shimo said. “This guy is really good, but we see guys like that all the time. Competing against some of the best [players] in the country is [how] travel really helps us.”
Senior pitcher Jack Nance started the game for the Highlanders, settling into a rhythm to close out the first inning after two early runs given up. McLean rallied after starting with two strikeouts on the back of a double and a steal from Shimo, but they were unable to get any runs across, and the inaugural inning of the 2024 season started 2-0 in favor of the visitors.
Gonzaga’s ability to capitalize where the Highlanders couldn’t gave them a 4-0 lead by the end of the third inning. After McLean loaded the bases in the second inning and couldn’t score, the Eagles did the same, except a double from second baseman Jackson Wilburn knocked in two baserunners to extend their lead. Nance tacked on a pair of strikeouts to get out of the jam and keep McLean in it. Despite another bases-loaded situation, McLean failed to capitalize, and the scoreboard still displayed a zero for the Highlanders as the game entered its latter half.
Junior Alex Gonzalez took over for Nance to start the 3rd inning and pitched his way out of another jam, stranding three Gonzaga baserunners to keep the deficit at four. Gonzalez left the mound fired up, igniting the dugout with a similar energy. McLean’s peanut gallery got louder once a walk and a wild pitch left a runner on second, but a controversial call derailed the energy: junior Ethan Ball was told to stay in the batter’s box after being hit by a pitch on account of a lack of effort to evade the pitch. On the ensuing pitch, Ball struck out, and the extra out prevented the Highlanders from getting any runs across. A stellar defensive play from McLean’s new third baseman Aydin Prell then shifted the momentum towards the Highlanders, but they were running out of time to put runs on the board.
Gonzalez was steadfast on the mound, consistently fending off a lineup with several Division I commits. Sophomore Dan Ockerman came in as a relief pitcher for the final inning, calmly sitting down the Eagles in his first varsity pitching appearance. The clock was up on the offensive side of the ball, and McLean simply could not string together enough hits to turn their dugout’s energy into runs. The game ended in a 4-0 shutout, and the fans left subdued after the loss. Despite the end result, the performance showed heavy promise for the season to come.
“We could have been more selfless as a team [and given] up big hits in exchange for small hits that will have a domino effect [for us],” senior shortstop Ryan Soong said. “Every loss we face is a learning experience, so we’re gonna come [out] on Friday and remember what we did wrong and try to improve on that.”
The Highlanders will continue their tour of local private schools when they take on Georgetown Preparatory School on March 15 at 4:30p.m.
