Fairfax Beats Briar Woods, 5-3, in Battle for the Cure

By Phil Murphy
Senior Multimedia/Content Editor
Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area

**If you would like to make a donation to the cause, please follow this link. It will take you to Coach Mosser's personal page on the 3-Day website. 
Post-game hand shakes were exchanged between Briar Woods and host Fairfax after the Rebels' 5-3 win on Tuesday.

After completing the line, however, fourth-year Falcon coach Josh Mosser doubled back to second-year Rebel coach Kevin Simonds. Mosser put one arm around his former high school teammate at West Springfield and hearkened back to a play from earlier in the game.

"I should know, playing in front of old Coach [Ron] Tugwell, that I shouldn't be sending a guy around third base when the right fielder is standing about 15 feet behind the second baseman," he said with a smile to Simonds, with whom he won the 1991 Virginia AAA State championship.

"And he was out by 40 feet."

The laid back post-game mood for the early-season meeting was not only a result of the friendship between the two young coaches, but also because of the purpose behind the inter-region and inter-classification -- AAA versus AA -- two-year home-and-home agreement.

Mosser is a longtime advocate of breast cancer awareness and -- along with Simonds -- brainstormed the idea for a charity game on St. Patrick's Day, through which all proceeds go towards funds that promote cancer screening, testing and research.

During the Battle for the Cure, t-shirts were sold, ribbons were distributed and donations were accepted for various funds.

This October, for the third-straight year, Mosser will walk 60 miles in the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk in Washington, D.C. to "support the efforts of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust."

He also pledged a personal, one-dollar donation for every member of the Briar Woods community that attended the game.

Still, being a regular-season game, players on these two, rising programs were hungry for an early-season victory, especially with brutal district schedules looming.

And Fairfax freshman Zack Hoeth recorded his first high-school base hit in the third inning on Tuesday night, an unforgettable moment for any athlete. Fortunately for Hoeth, though, his Rebel teammates have reason to remember it, as well.

Hoeth crushed an inside pitch over the left-centerfield wall for the first of five unanswered Fairfax runs over the next three innings.

"I've talked to my mentors, Coach Tugwell, [Chuck] Welch from Westfield and obviously Tom Verbanic when he coached here -- we all have the same philosophy," Simonds said. "If I'm playing a freshman, it's because he's a player and not because he's a freshman. I'm not going to say there are freshman mistakes.

"If you're a playing, you need to deliver. It's really nice because that kid works his butt off. He does everything he can to be consistent. To see him succeed in a moment where we needed him to succeed and step up to the challenge, it's really gratifying."

Added Hoeth, who did not see the ball leave the park: "The pitcher was pitching me kind of slow and threw me an inside pitch. It's my favorite pitch, so I just pulled it down the line.

"I thought it was going to just hit the fence, but when I looked out, I saw [their players] were just standing there and I thought I was out. Then I looked at our bench, the bench was cleared and the guys were at the plate. I was real surprised."

Fairfax collectively felt his shock four innings later.

Leading 5-0 entering the top of the seventh, the Rebels were three outs from victory. But four of the first five Falcon batters reached base, bringing up the top of the order.

One out and one run later, Briar Woods shortstop Chris Wade came to plate with the bases loaded, representing the tying run. Although he hit a two-run single, Fairfax senior Daniel Broyles struck out the next batter to lock up the Rebel win.

Although moral victories only bring minimal satisfaction, the Falcons and Rebels both showed late-game gusto atypical of their performance in recent seasons.

"We're in the fourth year of our program," said Mosser, whose team has an 8-55 all-time record, with seven of its wins coming last year. "We've got some guys that have been around for a while who've had some varsity experience since they were freshmen. We have high expectations, we expect to make plays.

"The nice thing is, we have two seniors at the top of our rotation. You saw both of them tonight. Ian [Hickman] came in to close, he's our No. 1 guy. Clayton [Sylvester] started and threw five strong innings, he's our strong No. 2 guy. If you have two guys that have varsity experience, throw strikes, hit their spots, stay ahead and get ground balls, you're going to be okay."

Email: pmurphy@digitalsports.com


Briar Woods   (0-1)   000 000 3 -- 3 7 1
Fairfax           (2-0)   001 310 X -- 5 9 2

Pitchers: 
BW - Sylvester (L) - 5 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, K, BB, HBP
BW - Hickman - IP, ER, H, K, 2 BB
FX - Kuchel (W) - 5 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 5 K, BB
FX - Broyles - 2 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 3 K, 2 BB, 2 HBP
Pitches-Strikes:
BW - Sylvester - 73-47; Hickman - 28-12
FX - Kuchel - 77-47; Broyles - 41-28
Groundouts-Flyouts:
BW - Sylvester - 8-6; Hickman - 1-1
FX - Kuchel - 5-5; Broyles - 3-0
Notable Batters: 
BW - Wade - 2-3, 2 RBI; Haufler - 2-4, RBI; Hickman - 1-2, BB
FX - Riley-Ryan - 1-4, 2 RBI, SB; Hoeth - 2-2, HR, RBI, BB; Broyles - 2-3; Schenaker - 1-4, 3B, RBI, R; Hudner - 1-3, 2B