Rams pick up second victory of the season

By James A. McCray III
Prince George's County, Content Manager

As the sun dipped behind the clouds dimming the Suitland Rams baseball field on Friday evening, one thing remained bright among all, that being the smile of Suitland senior catcher Douglas Jones, and for good reason.

Jones knocked in a game-high 4 RBIs for the Rams in an 8-5 victory over the visiting Laurel Spartans and helped the Rams secure the second victory of the season.

"I love baseball," Jones said. "That's what I want to do, that's what I always loved doing. ... Anytime I am playing baseball I am happy. ... Anytime now we play, whether we are losing or winning, I'm happy."

Suitland (2-7 overall) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom half of the opening frame, the first run scoring on a throwing error.

As an additional error scored a third Suitland run in the bottom of the second, Jones opened the game up with a 2-RBI single in the same inning to increase the lead to 5-0.

Teammate Malik Crawford would knock in the sixth run with an RBI double in the next at-bat.

Jones would again stretch out the lead in the following inning with a 2-RBI double.

The senior was thrown out at third base in the play, but the damage was done as the Rams were up 8-0 through three innings of play.

"I just told the guys, and we talked about it, he has a nice curve ball that works for him pretty good," Jones said of Laurel starting pitcher Alex Hanavin. "But, if he gives you the first-pitch fastball then have a strong at-bat, and that's what we tried to do."

As Jones took care of business at the plate, fellow senior Marcus Spriggs was strong from the mound as he finished the game the winning pitcher with his six-inning, nine-strikeout performance.

"It was a team thing," Spriggs said of the efforts on the day. " ... It was a complete team effort, it wasn't only me. It was the [entire] team."

Even with the eventual 8-0 cushion behind him, Spriggs and the team had one mentality as he added: "As we went into the dugout we said it's zero-zero. We had to keep the momentum up and keep fighting because teams come back easy."

Suitland head coach Andre Boone was more than pleased with his team's efforts on the day, including the play of his two seniors.

"We did a great job pitching, and that made the big difference," Boone said. " ... That was good pitching and a good performance turned in by Marcus and Douglass, the two seniors. That made the difference overall."

On the team, Boone added: "If we play together as a team, we would be surprised with the outcome. I was very impressed as we didn't make a lot of mistakes. ... Today everything worked and everything fell into place."

Even with the strong play from Suitland, the Spartans made a valiant effort in getting back into the game as three runs scored in the top half of the seventh inning due to two throwing errors.

The three runs cleared the bases for Laurel and cut the lead to 8-5 --as the first two Laurel runs were scored in the fifth on a 2-RBI double from Aychel Achi.

Just as Laurel had seemingly gained all of the momentum, an outstanding diving catch from Suitland center-fielder Mosiah Lloyd gave the momentum right back to the home team, as Jones eventually closed out the game from the mound.

"This is his first year playing," Boone said of Lloyd, "and I always tell him that he has got to stay focused. He could not have made that play unless he is very much involved in the game and that was a great play."

And as the skies got even darker during post-game speeches, Jones' smile stayed bright, especially after a victory for the Rams.

E-mail: James A. McCray III

Suitland 8, Laurel 5
Laurel    0 0 0   0 2 0   3  --   5 3 5
Suitland 2 4 2   0 0 0   x  --   8 7 3
WP: Spriggs   LP: Hanavin
Extra-base hits -- 2B: S (Jones, Crawford); L (Achi)