After pitching seven strong innings to give John Carroll baseball a chance against visiting Calvert Hall, senior right-hander Brooks Mueller could do nothing more than provide encouraging words Wednesday.
So when the No. 2 Patriots returned to the dugout for the bottom of the seventh inning, down a run and yet to scratch anything across against Cardinals standout pitcher Ryder Sowa, Mueller kept it simple: “Let’s go guys … we’re going to win this.”
It wasn’t a dramatic walk-off home run or even a big hit that got the job done, just scrappy play to the very end that lifted John Carroll to a 2-1 win over the No. 3 Cardinals in Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference play.
John Carroll coach Darrion Siler constantly preaches being relentless and never giving up. On a cold and windy Wednesday, the Patriots showed they’ve been listening.
Drew Jourdan led off the seventh with a sharp single and reached second on Miguel Leon’s sacrifice bunt. Nic Stockson, asked to pinch hit, battled for a walk. Cam Leach was hit by a Sowa pitch to load the bases to send Kiernan Deremeik to the plate with the bases full.
His grounder was fielded by shortstop Travis Petiz, who threw to second to force out the second out. But second baseman Clark Mileto’s rushed throw was just late and low, getting away from first baseman Anthony Williams to allow Jourdan and then Stockson to score.
The throw was the only error of the game for the Cardinals.
John Carroll (9-4) improves to 4-1 in the MIAA with its second straight one-run win over the Cardinals, opening the three-game set with a 5-4 victory Monday. The teams will compete the series at Calvert Hall (8-5, 3-2) on Friday with first pitch set for 6 p.m.
“Calvert Hall is a great team, a great program and we have a ton of respect for them. We always seem to play them tight, but the name of the game for us is relentless, never giving up,” Siler said. “We take every opportunity we’re given and pass it on to the next guy. That last inning is just resilient, not giving up, scrapping as much as we can and letting the guys go out and play the game.”
In the cold and windy conditions, both pitchers dominated by getting ahead in the count and receiving fine defensive support. Mueller allowed two hits, and the Cardinals’ run in the fifth inning was unearned on the Patriots’ only error of the game.
“I just tried to keep the team in the game and then at the end of the seventh, I had a talk with the boys to get them fired up and we came out on top,” he said. “So we won the series and now we’ll look to sweep them on Friday.”
Siler praised Mueller’s effort: “He kept us in that game. He went out there and absolutely pitched his butt off and did a fantastic job.”
And Siler was quick to point out how Stockson was ready when called on. His one-out walk was instrumental in the rally and his alert baserunning to score the winning run capped it.
“That’s a testament to the way our guys go in — they’re locked in,” Siler said. “So it’s not like you go into the situation ‘Oh wait, I’m in. I guess I need to figure something out.’ You already know what you need to do and go execute.”
In Monday’s home loss, the Cardinals left runners on base in the bottom of the seventh to fall short. On Wednesday, Sowa, a sophomore, was brilliant through six innings with the Cardinals making a number of fine defensive plays behind him.
“He pitched his heart out. He’s a gamer and we’re excited that he’s with us. He shut them out last year, so this was the first runs they got off of him in two years,” Calvert Hall coach Brooks Kerr said. “It’s tough to lose a game like that, to have it in our hands. You know it’s not going to be easy in this league, especially against a quality team like that. We need to get all 21 outs and we were one out short today. Now we got to get ready for Friday because we got to get one of these games this week.”
Calvert Hall: 0-0-0-0-1-0-0 — 1-2-1
John Carroll: 0-0-0-0-0-0-2 — 2-5-1
WP — Mueller
LP — Sowa
2B: CH — Peitz
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