On a beautiful spring night for baseball, Thomas
Jefferson’s hopes of getting back into the winning column were dashed by
another hot pitcher. This time it was
Paul Kirchner of the South Lakes Seahawks.
This was a far different game than the last time these two teams faced
off. In the earlier game, played during
the spring break tournament in mid-March, the Thomas Jefferson Colonials
handily defeated the Seahawks 8 to 4. It
was a different story tonight. It was an
ominous start for the Colonials when Alan Allworth, the starting catcher and
number three hitter for the Colonials all season, was hit in the face by an
errant pitch. Based on Alan’s reaction
to the pitch, no one had any idea of the seriousness of the injury at the time
even though he had a nasty cut on his chin.
But it turned out to be much worse than that. Alan will under go surgery for a broken
jaw. He also lost a tooth and several
others were knocked loose. He will be
out of action for the remainder of the season.
It did not get any better for the Colonials on this night. For the second consecutive game, the Colonials
were held to only one hit, a single by Colonials pitcher Mason Freedman; and
only one runner, Alex Radcliffe, was able to reach second base during the
game. As has been the pattern the last
couple of games, the Colonials put themselves at a disadvantage early by
letting the opposing team jump out to a big lead. The Seahawks led 8-0 after the first two
innings. Unlike the last two games,
Colonial errors did not play a major factor in the score. This time only two errors resulted in two of
the eight runs. Several Colonial players,
including Jacob McAuliffe, Wes Stukenbroeker, Travis Triggs, and Brian Tubergen
experienced regular season varsity action last night.
Freshman
Thomas Woodruff filled in admirably for Alan behind the plate.