Frederick Box Score
Catonsville Box Score
CATONSVILLE, Md.—Sophomore Joe Harbach (Abingdon, Md./Edgewood) saw his best three innings during his final three frames on the mound, which gave the No. 4 Harford baseball team the opportunity to rally from a 3-0 deficit with three runs in the ninth, and force extra innings against No. 1 Frederick in the Region XX Tournament on Friday at CCBC-Catonsville.
The Fighting Owls (33-16) would eventually fall to the Cougars (50-4), 4-3, after a walk-off home run by Tim Leather in the bottom of the 10th, but it was Harbach's effort coupled with some miraculous Owl breaks that really defined the game.
The lefty did all that he could on the hill, throwing 137 pitches in nine full innings, while surrendering three runs on 10 hits. Harbach, coming off a 15-strikeout, complete-game win over CCBC-Dundalk in the Region XX Opening Round, struggled early, giving up two hits in the first before getting out of the inning thanks to a double-play ball.
The sophomore settled down some in the second, allowing just one Frederick runner, on a base hit. He looked to be getting into a groove as he retired the first two Cougar batters in the third, but a double by Alex Buccilli just over the centerfielder's head put a runner into scoring position and a second, ground-rule, double from Brett Moreland plated Buccilli to put Frederick on the board.
Harbach served up two solid innings in the fourth and the fifth, holding the Cougars hitless, and keeping it a one-run game. The Harford offense was struggling, however, as the Owls stranded nine runners after five innings.
Moreland would tally his third straight hit off Harbach in the sixth, a lead-off single and would advance into scoring position after a sacrifice bunt by Tim Leather. Joey Murphy would follow with a single and after a groundout put runners on second and third, Tyler Shover would belt a two-out, two-run RBI double to right field to give Frederick a 3-0 advantage.
After six innings, Harbach had yet to record a strikeout, until he fanned Moreland to end the seventh. After a lead-off walk in the eighth, he would notch two more and a groundout as the teams headed into the ninth.
With the Cougars just three outs away from advancing, Harford needed to come up big in the ninth. With one out on the board after a lead-off pop-out, freshman Eric Quinn (Pylesville, Md./Harford Christian) squeaked a ball through the left side and sophomore Drew Burton (Kingsville, Md./Calvert Hall) drew a walk to put the tying run at the plate.
After a Frederick pitching change, freshman Alex Riley (Newark, Del./A.I. Dupont/Wesley) loaded the bases by reaching on a Cougar error. All runners advanced and Quinn broke up the shutout by scoring on a wild pitch before Harbach plated a run with a groundout RBI. With two outs on the board, sophomore Woody Wlodarczyk (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) kept Harford's hopes alive with a line drive single through the left side that plated Riley and knotted the score at three.
Harbach started the bottom of the ninth with a strikeout, his fourth of the game, but put the winning run on base as he grazed Mike Hnatuck, the next Frederick batter. Brock McCallister's double to right looked to be the game-ender, but Hnatuck underestimated Burton's cannon, as the right-fielder fired to Quinn, the cutoff, who relayed the ball to Wlodarczyk in time to catch Hnatuck at the plate and prevent the game-winning run. A groundout from Buccilli recorded the third out and sent the game to extra innings.
The Harford lineup went down in order in the top of the 10th and sophomore Mike Rappazzo (Bel Air, Md./C. Milton Wright) took the mound for the Owls in the bottom of the inning. Moreland looked to have belted the game-winning walk-off home run over the centerfield fence, but a miraculous leap over the wall by Riley robbed Frederick of the celebration, at least until Leather followed with the game-winning, walk-off homer over the right field fence.
Quinn led Harford, going 3-for-4 with a run scored on the day, while Wlodarczyk had the only extra-base hit, a double. Rappazzo (3-4) suffered the loss after giving up one run on one hit in one third of an inning.
On the Cougar side, Moreland led the way, going 3-for-5 with a double, a run and an RBI, while Shover was 2-for-4 with two RBI, including the game-winning homer. Jon Patino (3-1) earned the win after coming into the game in relief and allowing just one run on one hit and striking out one in 1.2 innings.
With the loss, Harford entered the loser's bracket of the Region XX Tournament, where they met No. 2 CCBC-Catonsville, who fell to No. 3 Allegany, 8-3 earlier in the day. The teams met in an elimination game immediately following Harford's loss to Frederick and the Fighting Owls saw their season come to an end with a 14-6, seven-inning, run-rule loss.
The Cardinals (37-18) tallied four runs each in the first and second innings, before Harford got on the board with three in the third. The Owls would add another two in the fourth to make it a three-run game, but a single Cardinal run in the fourth and four in the fifth would give Catonsville a 13-5 lead. Harford tallied its sixth run to keep the game below the eight-run threshold, but Catonsville added a single run in the seventh to earn the truncated win.
With the win over Harford, Frederick continued in the winner's bracket where it faced Allegany on Saturday, downing the Trojans (41-12), 8-2, to move onto the championship. Allegany faced Catonsville for the second time during the weekend in the loser's bracket on Saturday, defeating the Cardinals, 12-8, to set up Sunday's championship game against Frederick. The Cougars claimed the Region XX title with a 9-4 victory over Allegany.
