By Andy States
Stymied by Bishop McNamara starter Tayler Stiles over the first couple innings of Thursday’s contest at Prince George’s Boys and Girls Club Sports Park, the Good Counsel Falcons got their offense going in what would generally appear to be an unlikely place – at the bottom of the order.
With one out in the third, Kyle Hamby – the Falcons’ No. 9 batter – stepped to the plate with his team still hitless on the day. Hamby got his team’s offense going, slamming a solo home run over the fence in right-center to kick things off.
Hamby’s blast was but the beginning for the visiting Falcons, who exploded for eight runs over the game’s final three innings to take a 10-1 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) decision from the Mustangs.
“There’s always areas you can improve on, and as a coach you always want more than you get,” said first-year Good Counsel coach Carl Smith. “But we worked on certain things yesterday in practice, a few things with our hitting coach. He does a great job and had them prepared today. We knew [McNamara] were throwing a lefty, so we were prepared for that.
“When we got the pitches we could hit we just hit them. We’ve been doing pretty well with that all year. We’ve been pretty solid. We’re getting hits all through our lineup.”
Good Counsel (9-2, 6-1 WCAC) may have been a little slow in getting its offense going, but the Falcons made up for it over the game’s final three innings.
Holding a 2-1 lead to start the fifth, Good Counsel erupted for four runs to take control. Kevin Doherty and T.J. Brockway delivered back-to-back homers – Doherty’s being a two-run shot – to highlight the half-inning. The Falcons tacked on a pair of runs in each of the sixth and seventh innings, and produced nine of their 13 hits over the final three innings.
“Our bats really came through today,” Doherty said. “They’ve been coming through lately. It’s been amazing to see how we’ve manufactured runs with home runs, and really been doing a great job getting on base and getting each other around.”
Doherty also contributed a solid pitching effort, limiting McNamara (5-5, 1-2) to one run over five innings. The Mustangs loaded the bases with just one out in the second, but Doherty came back with a strikeout and induced a ground out to get out of the jam.
“I really tried to focus and dig deeper on that one” Doherty said of the bases-loaded situation. “The defense came through. We got ground balls and they made plays.”
The Mustangs scored their only run in the third, but were unable to move a base runner into scoring position again until there were two outs in the sixth inning. Danny Martinson and Collin McGowan contributed two innings of scoreless relief to seal the win for Good Counsel.
“It felt good,” Doherty said of his start. “I definitely tried to keep it down, because they’re a good hitting team. But I had great defense behind me. They were making great plays up the middle, and great catches in the outfield.”
“They’re a good team. They put a lot of pressure on us early,” Smith said of the Mustangs. “We were able to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the second. They had two more on the next inning. We were fortunate enough to get the ground balls and the plays to get out of it. The final score didn’t indicate what kind of game it was. It was a closer game than that. When the floodgates opened we got it from there.”
Good Counsel 10, Bishop McNamara 1
G 0 0 1 1 4 2 2 – 10 13 1
B 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 – 1 6 3
WP: Doherty, LP: Stiles
2B – Ross (GC), Hax (BM); HR – Hamby (GC), Doherty (GC), Brockway (GC)
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