Following a close, extra innings game with the Generals just two days before that resulted in a 5-4 win for McLean, the Highlanders traveled to Quincy Park to take them on once again on April 15. They were determined to make this game much less close than the first.
“We saw how they pitched and we knew who we were facing up against,” senior pitcher JW Riggins said. “We wanted to walk into this game with the motivation to smack them around like we should have in the first one.”
And smack them around they did, as immediately in the top of the first inning the Highlanders batted in a quick three runs off the back of pristine hitting. After a quick out, a walk and two singles scored one run. Then, after another quick out, an error scored two more runs putting the Highlanders up 3-0. A final groundout ended the top of the first, but the Highlanders had already come out to a much better start than previously.
“Jumping out to an early lead helped take the pressure off of the game quickly,” Riggins said. “We started to loosen up and that was when we started playing better.”
Riggins came out to start on the mound for the Highlanders, and had an impressive first inning showing. While he let up one walk and the field allowed a player to advance with an error, Riggins put down three batters on strikeouts to end the inning.
The next three innings were deadlocked, with no team being able to break through the pitching. JW excelled on the mound, striking out 10 batters in this series and not allowing a single run.
In the top of the fifth inning, the McLean bats came back to life. A quick triple from JW led off the inning, and a single by senior pitcher Dan Ockerman batted him in for a run. Senior catcher Reid Turner then advanced Ockerman to third on a triple, and after a quick out senior left fielder Ryan Riggins batted another triple to drive two more runs in. Three consecutive walks scored Ryan, but a quick groundout ended the campaign.
The bottom of the fifth for the Generals had to elicit some runs, or the mercy rule would go into effect. After a walk and a strikeout, JW was taken out of the game for sophomore pitcher Charlie Coates. Coates had a rough showing, letting up two walks and an error, along with W&L’s first run of the game. After a wild pitch that scored another run, senior pitcher Logan Baldrate took over on the mound. The Highlanders let up one more run on a fielder’s choice, but a fly-out ended the inning only giving up 3 runs.
The top of the sixth and seventh featured ten more runs for the Highlanders. McLean’s bats started heating up, with everyone getting a hit and most players scoring at least one run. Players that normally don’t hit at all were getting at-bats and doing something substantial with it. On the mound, Baldrate stayed consistent, not letting up any more runs and closing out the innings smoothly and quickly.
“Towards the end we were up enough that the nerves were released and I was just throwing the ball to the catcher,” Baldrate said. “The pressure was off and we just wanted to get out of the innings.”
The boys maintained their lead for the whole game and closed out with a whopping 17-3 victory. They face off against Wakefield on April 21, hoping to keep the ball rolling and stay hot en route to a postseason run.
“We know what we’re capable of,” Baldrate said. “We just have to continue to work hard as a team and take every game one-by-one.”
