PREP BASEBALL: Streaks’ slam sinks Cougars

STUARTS DRAFT- Stuarts Draft senior hurler Jeremy Fitzgerald was the obvious choice to pitch Monday evening against the Harrisonburg.

And Fitzgerald pitched a gem of a game, but he made one mistake — hanging a curveball over the middle of the plate that seconds later landed over the left-field fence for a grand slam.

The second-inning slam was all the Streaks needed, holding off a late rally from the Cougars, winning 4-3 in the first round of the Region III baseball tournament.

Fitzgerald got himself into a jam in the second inning. With one out in the inning an error by the third baseman and a couple of walks loaded the bases for the Streaks. Fitzgerald calmly struck out Zack Dean and only had the number nine hitter in his way from getting out of the jam.

Preston Grogg came to the plate just trying to put the ball in play. With two strikes against him, he took a big swing and went opposite field for his first home run of the year.

“[Preston] does a lot of good things with the bat. That’s why we like him down at the bottom of the lineup,” said Harrisonburg coach Jay Hook. “We tell them every time they have two strikes against them to hit the ball hard and make them field it and Preston did a great job of making contact.”

The slam did not get to Fitzgerald as he settled down and kept the Streak hitters at bay. He went the distance, striking out 11 batters and allowing only two hits in the loss.

“Jeremy pitched a heck of a ball game. He is a battler. Every time we send him out there we know we have a great chance to win,” said Draft coach Josh Podgorski. “We knew he was going to settle down after the home run. He is a pitcher and he knows what he has to do to be successful.”

The Cougars made things interesting in the sixth inning.

The defense behind the Streaks starting pitcher Seth Potter fell apart, and the Cougars jumped right on the opportunity. Three straight errors by the defense scored David Gauldin. With runners on first and second Cole Beyeler stepped to the plate and ripped a single to left scoring Fitzgerald all the way from second.

Jonathan Sandridge bunted Ricky Dimitt to third and Jon Trice hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Dimitt as the Cougars cut the lead to one. Draft was unable to score in the seventh as Fitzgerald popped out to the center fielder to end the ball game.

“We hit the baseball really hard tonight. We just kept hitting it right at people and that’s when you know the baseball gods are not shining down on you,” Podgorski said. “All the credit goes to Harrisonburg, they did what they had to do to win and I wish them the best of luck.”

With the victory the Streaks move on to play another day and will travel to Jefferson Forest tonight in the second round of the Region III tournament.