MARYLAND O'S UNDER 16 TEAM SWEEPS PAIR FROM HILLCATS

by Joe DiBlasi

The Maryland Orioles 16 and under team in the Baltimore Metro Baseball League  took the field on Saturday at 6th Street in Brooklyn against the Maryland Hillcats trailing coach Gary Albright's team by two games in the league standings.  They closed to within a game of first place after winning game one of a double header, 9-3, behind the  strong right arm of Chris Peltz (Cardinal Gibbons), and the booming bats of Dom Fratantuono (Gibbons) and Jake Theiss (North County).  Seven of the Orioles' twelve hits in game one went for extra bases.

Peltz ran his record to 6-0 in the league, Fratantuono had a single, triple and a homer, and Theiss had a double, a home run two RBI, and scored two runs in the lid-lifter.

The Orioles staked Peltz to a big lead in the first inning, on six consecutive hits, when Fratantuono singled, Christian Wolfe (John Carroll) singled, Mike Schmidt (North County) doubled (scoring Fratantuono and Wolfe), Theiss doubled, (scoring Schmidt), Sean Doyle (Archbishop Curley) singled, (scoring Theiss), and the O's had a 4-0 lead. The O's got another run in the third on a solo clout by Theiss, and two more in the fourth when Fratantuono hit a two-run shot over the center-filed fence to make it 7-0.

Peltz was cruising on a one-hitter entering the fifth, when the Hillcats first-baseman Andrew Hodgkins (Linganore) ruined his shut-out bid with a wallop to deep left, with two aboard, to cut the Oriole lead to four.  Hodgkins had three of the Hillcats five hits in game one. Mike Schmidt (North County), and Kenny Gosnell (Mount St. Joseph), each had two hits for coach Gary Fratantuono.

In the night-cap the teams played Home Run Derby, as the O's got solo shots from  Kodi Beckwith (Towson Catholic), who tripled in game one, Steve Schillenberg  (Gibbons) and a huge walk-off, three-run homer by Doyle that gave the O's an 8-6 win and a double-header sweep.

Brandon Roser (Francis Scott Key), Chris Eckard (Westminster) and Colin Fishman (Good Counsel) had solo homers for the Hillcats. Fishman went the distance for the Hillcats, and carried a 6-5 lead into the bottom of the seventh, when Wolfe and Schmidt singled, before Doyle hit the game winner.

The sweep allowed the Orioles to improve to 15-4, and the Hillcats  fell to that same record, as the teams left the field tied for first.


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Game One

Hillcats    0   0   0   0   3   0   0         3    5    0
Orioles    4    0   1  2    2   0   x        9    12   2

Eckard, Law (6) and Roser
Peltz and Patti

WP-Peltz; LP- Eckard

2B-  O-Schmidt, Theiss, Gosnell, H-Roser
3B-  O-Beckwith, Fratantuono
HR- O- Theiss, Fratantuono  H-Hodgkins

GAME TWO

Hillcats    0  1  1  1  1  1  1     6   7   0
Orioles    0   1  3  0  0  1  3     8  7    1

Fishman, Ewing (7), and Roser
Wolfe and Patti

WP- Wolfe   LP- Ewing

2B-  H-DeSando, Roser;  O-Gosnell, Fratantuono




 

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