On Tuesday May. 27, the McLean Highlander varsity baseball team took on the Centreville Wildcats in an intense Regional Quarterfinal matchup. The highly anticipated contest was win-or-go-home for both teams, with the winner of the game advancing to play the Oakton Cougars in the Regional Quarterfinal.

“We knew that we would have to compete with them all night if we wanted to win this game,” Assistant Coach Ky Parrott said. “Obviously [Centreville’s Pitcher] is really good, but if we can find a way to make him work for it, we should be where we want to be.”

Senior Alex Gonzalez took to the bump for the Highlanders, hurling eight strikeouts and surrendering only one hit in his first four innings of pitching. McLean finally broke through on offense in the bottom of the fourth inning, with contributions from juniors Reid Turner and Ryan Riggins, as well as senior Gabriel Pegues to help the Highlanders take a 4-0 lead after four innings.

“It’s always great to get run support from the team,” Alex Gonzalez said. “We obviously have a very talented group of guys here and it’s always great to see everyone feeding off each other’s contributions.”

Alex Gonzalez continued his dominance on the mound after the fourth inning. The University of Cincinnati commit would end up throwing 6.1 innings, giving up one hit and no runs, while striking out 10 Centreville Wildcats in the process.

Senior Brennan Core closed out the final two outs for the Highlanders, with McLean winning the Regional Quarterfinal with a final score of 4-0. The Highlanders will play the Oakton Cougars at home on Thursday May. 29 in another win-or-go-home matchup, only this time in the Regional Semifinals.

“At the end of the day we executed our plan, especially on the mound and with timely hitting,” Parrott said. “We were able to control the game, and did a great job of channeling our efforts and energy which helped us pull out the win.”