Baseball: Eleanor Roosevelt 8, High Point 5

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By James A. McCray III
Prince George's County, Content Manager

If Eleanor Roosevelt sophomore pitcher Matt Chernesky was not comfortable enough after striking out two batters in the top half of the first inning in Tuesday's contest with the High Point Eagles, he very much so became comfortable after his team batted in its half of the inning.

The Raiders, in their home-opening game of the new season, scored four runs in the first inning allowing their sophomore pitcher to get even further settled in on the mound.

Chernesky consistently found the strike zone in earning nine strikeouts in five innings of work to help lead the Raiders to an 8-5 victory.

"It [gave] me assurance that I needed to throw strikes, make them hit it, make our guys make plays, and we [would] be fine," said Chernesky of his thoughts after Roosevelt's first inning scoring output. 

Roosevelt head coach Andrew Capece believed the early four-run inning was advantageous to his young pitcher.

"I definitely think so," the coach said. " ... This is [Chernesky's] first year playing varsity, so anytime you get that buffer there where you know you can make a mistake or two, it always helps."

Chernesky was the game's winning pitcher with his five-inning effort allowing two hits and walking two batters.

As Roosevelt outfielder Aaron Alston crossed the plate on a throwing error to make the score 1-0 in the first, teammate Kevin Halpert blew the inning open with a base-clearing, 3-run double taking the lead to 4-0 giving his team vital scoring cushion that the Raiders and Capece would later find useful.

"It was good to jump out on them early and get some runs," Halpert said. "We had two outs already, bases loaded, so I was just looking to put the ball in play, and I got a good pitch to hit."

"That was a huge hit by Kevin," Capece said. "That would have been a big momentum changer. We had bases loaded and if they would have got out of there with just one run, that would have been a big lift for [High Point pitcher Leandro Guzman]. That was definitely the turning point of the game, I thought."

On Chernesky, Capece added: "He did a great job. He is a sophomore but was really composed. He just throws strikes. He usually doesn't strike a lot of guys out, but he hits his spots and has a nice curve. ... He just gives us a chance. Guys don't get good swings off of him and he doesn't walk a lot of guys."

High Point (0-2) entered the game after losing its season opener to Northwestern on the last at-bat.

Although the Eagles entered the top half of the seventh inning down seven runs, 8-1, the Eagles and head coach Brian Rau almost created another dramatic ending.

The first three of four batters for the Eagles reached base via walks loading the bases with only one out in the inning.

High Point's Tim Baldwin knocked in a run on a RBI single to make the score 8-2.

With two outs, Patrick Convey knocked in a run with a RBI single of his own to make it 8-3.

A walk and a wild pitch allowed for two more runs to cross the plate for the Eagles, but to no avail as the third out was captured by Roosevelt.

"We are young, and we are still making mistakes," Rau said. " ... I am not displeased at our progress. We are going to get better; I know we are going to get better each week. Right now, I have three freshmen and one sophomore starting.

"... We were still kind of in the game; we were happy with that. We got a good pitching performance from both of our pitchers today. They both are young and we told both of them that even when the defense isn't backing you up, you continue to do your job."

Guzman pitched five innings for the Eagles and Marino Betonces pitched in relief efforts.

"We really just want to get better each game," Rau said. "When it comes time for the playoffs ... we just want to be playing our best baseball at that time."

"I was getting there," Capece said of being nervous in the final inning. "I knew that the top of their order was tough. ... Those guys had taken some good hacks and one swing of the bat in the middle of the order and then you are talking tying run on base. ... It is never good to start walking the bottom of the order because you have the guys that can swing coming up."

However, Roosevelt --the defending 4A South region champions-- improved to 2-0 on the season with its home-opening victory.

"We are just going back to basics and trying to make routine plays," Capece said of the season goals. "We want to build from the bottom up with guys having good at-bats and, hopefully if we do a good job, by the end of the year we can think about doing something in the playoffs.

"For now, we are just trying to survive the games we don't play well in."

E-mail: James A. McCray III


Eleanor Roosevelt 8, High Point 5
High Point   --   0 0 1   0 0 0   4  -- 5 4 5
Roosevelt    --   4 2 2   0 0 0   x  -- 8 6 2
WP: Chernesky   LP: Guzman
2B: (ER- Fisanich, Halpert)