These Baseball and Softball Panthers are for Real

By Dan Sousa

LoudounPrepSports.com Senior Content Editor

Sterling (Mar. 30, 2009) – Make no mistake about it, these Panthers are for real.

The Potomac Falls High School baseall team silenced Park View Friday night on Jake Kline‘s near perfect gem of a 1-hitter and the Potomac Falls softball squad completed a historic week with a 3-0 win over host Park View.

While the baseball team’s 10-0 win Friday and 3-0 start is not a surprise — the Panthers are an experienced team and the Dulles Distrit’s frontrunner after coming within one game last year of making the state tournament — the softball team is 3-0 in district and has won four straight games with a roster that feature no seniors, just four juniors and 10 underclassmen.

Despite the youth movement, the Panthers came away with a pair over 3-0 wins last week over Loudoun County, a team that advanced to the state playoffs last season, and over Park View, in what is the first Panther victory over the Patriots softball in recent memory if not the first time in school history.

PF’s Hard-throwing sophomore Heather Kiefer picked up her fourth win of the season by spreading five hits around. She struck out seven with one walk. Park View sophomore Robin Heironimus is recovering from an injury and unable to pitch right now so the Patriots put freshman Brittney Moore in the pitching circle and she allowed seven hits — five of which came from the bats of sophomore Kayla Guttridge (3-for-3, run) and freshman Caitie McClay (2-for-3, run, RBI).

Also for the Panthers freshman Carlyn Hanzel doubled and freshman Lauren Fulcher was 1-for-2 with a run scored.

Potomac Falls took a 1-0 lead in the second inning with Guttridge leading off with a single and moving to second on a wild pitch. McClay then drove in Guttridge with a single to right.

The Panthers added some insurance in the fifth inning with McClay reaching on an infield single. Fulcher walked and both runners advanced on an infield groundout. McClay hustled home on a wild pitch to make it 2-0 and Fulcher scored on an overthrow to first base.

Park View had its chances, especially early when the Patriots loaded the bases against Kiefer in the first and third but the Panther soph was able to get the clutch outs.

PF was led defensively by third baseman Fulcher and shortstop junior Bonnie Pascal who combined for four putouts and eight assists. Hanzel also had two catches in center and PF junior catcher Courtney Sunderlaned picked off a runner.

The Patriots are also a young team this season with just two seniors, four juniors on the roster to go with four sophomores and two freshmen. One of the freshmen, Samanthan Thomas, had two hits in the loss.

Softball Scoreline: Potomac Falls 3, Park View 0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E LOB

PF 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 3 7 2 5

PV 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 1 7

Baseball: Kline Nearly Perfect in 1-Hitter over Patriots

Potomac Falls senior Jake Kline allowed one Park View runner to reach base Friday night and that was on an infield single in the first inning that traveled eight feet from home plate. The Panthers (3-0 overall, 3-0 in district) had more than enough run support for Kline’s gem with a 10-0 Dulles District victory.

On Park View’s only hit, Hayden Earley hit a 0-1 pitch that landed in front of home plate and stopped. The Panthers pitcher, catcher and third baseman all went to field it but nobody could make a play. Kline then stranded Earley at first by striking out Adam Flees and getting Johnny Mason to hit a comebacker to the mound.

Thhe Panther bats came out smoking with Ben Sweger leading off the game with a double to left field. He was sacrificed to second and scored on a shot to third off the bat of Rob Malan. Mike Spring followed with a double down the third base line and both runners preceded to score on passed balls to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead.

Potomac Falls added a run in the third on two Patriot errors and then scored three more times in the fourth inning. Chris Pelto led off the fourth with a fly ball to right that was dropped for an error. Sweger followed with a single to left. Chad McMichael then stroked an RBI single to right field and Malan followed with an RBI double to left field.

After a walk and fielder’s choice, Ryan Miller collected his second hit of the game with a single to left and Matt Rubino walked to load the bases. Eric Dimsey responded with an RBI single up the middle to make it 8–0 and that finished the night for PV starter Johnny Mason.

Sam Ryan came into pitch for Park View and pitched a smooth fivth before running into trouble in the sixth. The Panthers added two more runs on hits by Miller, Rubino and Dimsey to make it 10-0.

Meanwhile, Kline was cruising through the game with 1-2-3 innings and registering 10 strikeouts and no walks. Kline was mixing his pitches masterfully with a good fastball, big breaking curve and an effective changeup to silence the Park View bats.

Park View falls to 1-3 in district and 1-4 overall. The Patriots host Herndon Monday night in a non-district affair and PF is back in action Tuesday with a distrit home date with Freedom.

Highlights: PFalls Jacob Kline (1 hit shutout, 10 strikeouts, no walks), Ryan Miller (3-4) Ben Sweger (2-4, 2 runs scored), Matt Rubino (2-3, RBI) and Eric Dimsey (2-3, 2 RBI’s)