By Andy States
SMAC Content Manager
With the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the seventh on Friday afternoon, Patuxent's Joey Mindick faced his first real pressure situation of the day.
Though Mindick had allowed a runner on base in each of the first six innings in the team's game against the Chopticon Braves, no runner had advanced past second base and in just the third inning had more than one runner been on the bases. But after a short conference with pitching coach Scott Fagan and catcher Eric Kron, Mindick settled down to get out of the jam with a strikeout and a game-ending 4-6-3 double play to nail down a 3-0 shutout for the vistiing Panthers.
"It was a little nerveracking," Mindick said. "Coach Fagan and my catcher Eric Kron both calmed me down. They know how to do it and we got out of the situation."
Mindick allowed six hits and three walks in the complete-game shutout, while striking out five. His counterpart, Chopticon's Tyler Summers, did not walk a batter and struck out nine, but Patuxent (4-6, 3-5) generated just enough offense to scrape together a couple runs and played a flawless game in the field to earn the win.
"That's what we've been trying to do all year," Patuxent coach Keith Powell said. "Our four wins have been like that. Our pitching's been good all year and we finally got some timely hitting and didn't make any errors. I don't think we've had an errorless game all year."
Patuxent picked up a two-out run in the top of the first. Mindick doubled to left and scored on Kron's single an at-bat later. In the fourth, Patrick Slaughter scored on a Mike Sknerski ground ball. An inning later it was Mindick driving home Mike Swearingen from third with a two-out single to account for Patuxent's third run of the game.
Behind 3-0, Chopticon (8-3, 6-3) attempted to mount a rally in its last chance. Michael Gilmartin led off with a double. Michael Labanowski then drew a walk and Austin Murphy was hit by a pitch to load the bases with the lineup's No. 2 hitter stepping the plate. But a strikeout and double play later, the Braves had a seven-game winning streak snapped.
"There wasn't a lot of thinking. We had horrible at-bats," Chopticon coach Steve Williams said. "That's what beat us today -- the mental aspects of the game. We have to get better mentally because we're not an overpowering offensive team. We can't affort to make those mental errors."
Of Chopticon's six hits, four were doubles, two off the bat of Kyle King an done each by Summers and Gilmartin. But the Braves' inabliilty to get the timely hit off of Mindick wasted Summers' performance on the mound.
"Tyler did a fantastic job today," Williams said of Summers' pitching performance. "You take away some of those mental errors and the score is not 3-0. Not taking anything away from [Mindick]. He pitched a great game, too. We just didn't capitalize on chances and they did."
Patuxent 3, Chopticon 0
P 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 - 3 8 0
C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 6 2
WP: Mindick, LP Summers
2B - Mindick (P), Summers (C), King 2 (C), Gilmartin (C)
astates@digitalsports.com
