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Not this time
Lusby falls to La Plata the next night
Friday, July 3, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by EMILY BARNES
La Plata first baseman Ricky Huber readies to make a catch with Lusby's Mike Mohler sliding back to first base.
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After a tough two-run loss to Lusby Post 274 the day before, La Plata bounced back on Tuesday evening at La Plata High School with 10-6 victory, snapping the Prowlers two-game winning streak.
"Yesterday [head coach] Teddy's [Sknerski] son [Mike] threw a heck of a game and stopped us cold," La Plata head coach Dan DeVitis said. "I told the boys that I really was disappointed because we have an older ball club and I felt we should've been hitting the ball, so we did a much better job today."
La Plata (11-4-1, 10-4 Frank Riley League) trailed 2-0 after the top of the first inning when Lusby's Taylor Peed and Eric Kron's back-to-back RBI singles brought in Joey Mindick and Mike Mohler home.
However, the hosts responded in the bottom of the third with six unanswered runs to give them a respectable cushion throughout the contest. After La Plata's Ricky Huber walked, Jordan McGraner and J.B. Sapienza hit back-to back singles to load the bases.
"If we hit, we can contend for the Frank Riley league," added DeVitis. "To be honest with you, the games we haven't hit are the games we've lost. I give credit to this [Lusby] team; I mean their young, they put the pressure on us and they could've beat us today too."
Kyle Beckett's RBI single then scored Huber to give La Plata its first run of the game. The hot hitting continued as Mark Anderson knocked in a two-run double and Austin Barefoot followed up with a two-run single to up its lead to 5-2.
"As the season has progressed I've found more of a comfort zone," said Anderson, who went 2 for 3 with two extra-base hits, drove in three runs, walked and scored two runs. "It's a whole lot easier when the whole team is hitting because hitting is contagious, which helps me out."
After a Brandon Thomas walk and a Barefoot pickoff at second base, Ross Hunsberger hit a double to center field to score Thomas for La Plata's sixth run of the game.
Brett Irwin grounded out to end the inning, but Mohler was taken out by Sknerski after three innings of work as Lusby's starting ace and was replaced by Mindick.
"We definitely did not come out with our best defense today," said Mohler, who had a 3-for-3 performance at the plate. "We had a lot of errors that killed us today. In the first inning I wanted to set the tone with the double, we just have to get on the board."
In the bottom of the fourth, Sapienza and Huber added two more La Plata runs to extend the game to an 8-2 margin.
What made the difference in those third and fourth innings was four Lusby fielding errors, which were huge in the outcome.
"Overall for a bunch of young guys we played very well," said Lusby head coach Teddy Sknerski. "All week long for the last four or five games we've played good. We had one bad [third] inning if you look at the book. [La Plata] were well prepared, well coached and I have the utmost respect for coach DeVitis and his players. I'm proud of my guys and I see them growing as young men."
Lusby (4-6, 4-3) did not lay down as it counteracted with a streak of their own hitting in the top of the fifth with five straight hits by the first five batters that was capped by Peed's three-run blast over the center field fence to cut the La Plata lead to 8-5 going into the sixth.
"I just wanted to do whatever to help out the team," said Peed, who wasn't at Monday's game.
La Plata starting pitcher Eric Devinney found himself in trouble in the top of the sixth when Lusby's Jacob Robertson blasted a solo homer to center to cut the La Plata lead to two. McGraner came in to replace DeVinney.
"It was a 2-1 count and I said, ‘Well it's either going to be a fastball up and end or fastball down the middle, it went down the middle,"' said Robertson on how he timed the hit. "I stuck the bat on it and didn't know where it was going until I looked up."
Devinney added: "I left a couple up that [Lusby] took advantage of as you could see, but I just wanted to keep it down and let the defense take care of it."
La Plata would put the game out of reach in the bottom of the sixth when Barefoot boasted a two-run double to end the game.
Results
La Plata 10, Lusby 6
Lusby 200 031 0 – 6 13 4
La Plata 006 202 x – 10 10 1
WP Devinney, LP Mohler
Extra-base hits: 2B – Holtzclaw (L), Mohler (L), Anderson (LaP),
Barefoot (LaP), Hunsberger (LaP); 3B – Anderson (LaP); HR – Peed (L), Robertson (L)
