Gaithersburg slowly chipped away at Whitman's 4-0 lead in the second inning.
Senior Kevin Brady struck out 10 batters in 4 2/3 innings and allowed just one hit.
By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.comGaithersburg Coach Jason Woodward didn’t want to have to use Clemson-bound senior Kevin Brady, but when the top-seeded Trojans found themselves trailing
Whitman by four runs in the second inning, Woodward summoned his ace.
“He had to come in and stop the bleeding,” Woodward said.
Brady got out of a one-out second-inning jam and then went on to pitch four more scoreless innings. Given a chance, Gaithersburg’s offense did the rest, gradually chipping away at Whitman’s lead to win 6-4 Thursday.
Gaithersburg advances to the regional finals, where it will face Sherwood, whom Gaithersburg beat, 3-0, on May 1 behind a dominant performance by Brady. However, since Brady pitched Thursday, he is allowed to pitch just 1/3 of an inning on Friday by way of a rule that states that a pitcher may only throw 10 innings in three days.
“We’re down 4-0,” Woodward said. “We had to scrap back into it.”
Whitman broke out for four runs when it led off the second inning with a single and loaded the bases when two straight batters were plunked. A fielder’s choice brought in one run, an error allowed another and a single scored two more.
That’s when Brady entered. He got out of the inning with a pair of groundouts and then struck out the Vikings, 1-2-3, in the third inning. He finished with 10 strikeouts and allowed just one hit.
The Trojans scored one run in the bottom of the second when Brian Dutka got Sean Wynn home on a sacrifice fly.
“Once we got the run in the bottom of the second I knew we had a shot if we could get one run at a time,” Woodward said. “I told them, ‘You need to get one run an inning and we’ll win the game.’ They took it literally and I was hoping we could get more than one in an inning.”
Gaithersburg scored one more run in the third when Nick Riley scored on a fielder’s choice by Wynne. Dutka brought home Delvin Downs with a double to centerfield in the fourth inning. Chad Palman tied the game with a sacrifice fly and Wynne blasted the double that scored Nick Vergelli to pull ahead.
“They were calm,” Woodward said. “They stayed patient. They played like seniors. … The kids were loose and had fun and they were enjoying it.”