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Prince George's County, Content Manager
It was a second inning of dreams for the tenth-seeded Northwestern Wildcats in Saturday's opening round of the 4A South playoffs against the Dr. Henry A. Wise, Jr. Pumas.
Northwestern and head coach Tom Tomasetti used favorable bounces, and errors from the field, to score 11 runs in a big second inning to earn a 14-1 victory and a ticket into the second round.
"They are a good team," Tomasetti said of Wise. "We just capitalized on a couple of errors, a couple passed balls and wild pitches, and we just had that one big inning in the second. ... We'll take it, but it was not what I expected."
Back-to-back RBIs started the top half of the second frame for Northwestern breaking a 1-1 tie and giving the Wildcats a 3-1 lead.
After a sacrifice-fly RBI made it 4-1, Northwestern proceeded to score eight more unearned runs taking a 12-1 lead, the biggest blow coming on a passed ball that disappeared in high grass behind the plate allowing three runs to cross the plate.
"When the three scored on the one where the catcher couldn't find the ball, I felt bad for him," Tomasetti admitted.
Northwestern pitcher Servio Hernandez earned the win from the mound with his complete-game performance and earned confidence throughout as his team provided him plenty of run support.
"I was working my hardest striking out people," said Hernandez as he finished with eight strikeouts. "I did what I had to do out on the field."
Wise's Andrew Byrd knocked in the only run of the game for the Pumas in the first inning.
However, Wise head coach Andrew Gilliam, although unhappy at game's end, was pleased with the season overall for Wise.
"There is a positive," Gilliam said. "We played Bowie, beat Bowie. We were very competitive in a lot of games. ... We had some positives, but you just hate to end. In our last six games we have been on a six-game skid. We just haven't been playing well of late."
Northwestern will now face No. 2 seed High Point in the second round, a game that will break a 1-1 regular season split between the two.
E-mail: James A. McCray III
Northwestern 14, Henry Wise 1 (5 Inn.)
Northwestern 1 11 2 0 0 -- 14 5 1
Henry Wise 1 0 0 0 0 -- 1 3 6
WP: Hernandez LP: Byrd
Extra-base hits -- 2B: NW(Sorto); 3B HW(Byrd)
