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Prince George's County, Content Manager
Studs, sensations, stars, superb -- no matter what positive "S" word you could think of, all would help describe the efforts of two sophomore members of the Dr. Henry A. Wise Pumas baseball team and their efforts on Friday afternoon with the hosting Laurel Spartans.
From the mound, Wise sophomore starting pitcher Andrew Byrd struck out 16 Laurel batters, and from the plate, sophomore third baseman Zachary Myers had 4 RBIs on the day en route to a 6-2 victory over Laurel.
"I felt pretty good today because we have been out for spring break," Byrd said of his performance. "I got to rest -- still had to throw around a little bit. The team helped me out, so it was pretty good."
Byrd and the Pumas (5-1) overcame an early-game deficit as Laurel scored two runs in the bottom half of the third inning.
However, much to the joy of Wise head coach Andrew Gilliam, Byrd tied the game at 2 with a 2-RBI double in the fourth, and Myers followed up two batters later with a 2-RBI single to give Wise the lead at 4-2.
"We are trying to establish some character and build a will to win," Gilliam said. "Even when we are down, we have to find a way to get ourselves back in the game. I told them that I did not think that two runs was going to beat us, and if you think two runs was going to beat us, we don't need to be out here."
Myers added two additional RBIs with a double in the sixth inning.
"I just had to listen to my coach," said Myers of his big day. "He pulled me on the side on the second at-bat. He told me to chock up on the bat and just swing away. ... On the third at-bat, I got a little more confident and hit the first pitch."
"Zach, early on, has been struggling a bit and we are trying to find a different approach for him," Gilliam said. " ... He has been swinging well, but I just told him to shorten up a little bit. ... He is starting to get it."
On Byrd's performance from the mound and the plate, Gilliam jokingly added: "With Byrd, he does a great job on the mound and whatever we can get from him from the plate, we are quite happy. As long as he is doing his job from the mound, I am alright. ... We have a bunch of sophomores and I call them the Marlboro-Clinton phenoms."
Laurel (6-2) jumped out in front with an RBI single from Zach Kapanoske in the third inning, and teammate David Carmen stole home to increase the lead to 2-0.
However, to the dismay of Laurel head coach Bryan Harris, those would be the only runs to cross the plate on the afternoon.
"We always want to play ahead," Harris said. "We got up two, which is a positive thing, obviously. I have always told my guys the most important thing in baseball is when you score; shut them down the next inning; and, if they score answer right back. If you can do those things, you will win most of your ball games.
"We scored two, we did not shut them down as they came back and scored four in the next inning. They scored, and we did not answer. ... So, we did the two opposites of what I would like them to do. ... Today, the better team won. They were the better team today."
The loss snapped the six-game winning streak of the Spartans.
E-Mail: James A. McCray III
Henry Wise 6, Laurel 2
Henry Wise 0 0 0 4 0 2 0 -- 6 11 2
Laurel 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 -- 2 3 2
WP: Byrd LP: Churchwell
Extra-base hits: 2B W (Byrd, Myers)
