Cotterell Delivers Win In Game One On Walk-Off Single

CHESTERTOWN, MD – Host Washington College and visiting Gettysburg split a Centennial Conference baseball doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Athey Baseball Park.  Both games were 6-5 with the Shoremen winning the first game in 10 innings, while the Bullets held on for the win in game two.  Washington is now 21-4 overall and 6-2 in the conference, while the Bullets are 13-9 and 3-5 respectively.

The 21 wins ties the program record for wins in a season as the 1997 team went 21-13 in the final season under Washington College Hall of Famer Ed Athey '47.

In game one, the Bullets scored twice in the top of the first inning to grab a quick 2-0 lead.  Pat Cody drove in the first run of the game on a fielder's choice to plate Austin Davis.  The Bullets second run of the frame was scored by Alex Freeman as he came home from third base on a sacrifice fly to left field off the bat of Nate Simon.

The Shoremen scored one run each in the bottom of the first and second innings to even the game at 2-2.  Junior Sean Connole (Mt. Airy, MD/St. John's Catholic) scored on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Jon Mahaffey (Sykesville, MD/Century) to trim the lead to 2-1 in the first.  In the last of the second, sophomore Nick Marinelli (Ellicott City, MD/Marriotts Ridge) plated junior CY Daniel Wu (Kowloon, Hong Kong/International Secondary School) on a single to right to level the game.

The Bullets scored twice in the top of the third to grab a 4-2 lead.  Patrick O'Grady's RBI through the left side scored Simon to put Gettysburg up by a run with two outs.  Two batters later, Freeman walked with the bases loaded to force in Cory Karagjozi to complete the scoring in the top of the third.

In the bottom of the third, Washington scored three times to take a 5-4 lead.  Senior John Rolewicz (Bear, DE/Salesianum) drove in both Connole and senior Ryan Normoyle (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) on a double to left to knot the game at 4-4.  Rolewicz scored on a fielding error by Gettysburg to complete the scoring in the inning and put WC up 5-4.

In the top of the fourth, Gettysburg tied the game at 5-5 on a two-bagger to right-center off the bat of Karagjozi that scored Clint O'Brien.  That would be the last of the scoring until the bottom of the 10th inning.

In the 10th inning, Normoyle walked with two outs to keep the inning alive.  The next batter, Rolewicz singled through the right side to advance Normoyle to second.  Then Cotterell drove a ball to deep right that Gettysburg's Al Posch could not track down in right and Normoyle scored for the walk-off run and give WC a 6-5 win in the opener.

For the Shoremen in game one, Rolewicz went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored and Connole went 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored.  Cotterell and Marinelli both had two hits, while Normoyle scored twice.  WC had nine hits in game one.  On the mound, junior pitcher Kyle Aldrich (Warren, NJ/Watchung Hills Regional) pitched the final three innings to get the win and improve to 4-2.  He went three innings, allowed three hits, struck out two and did not allow a run in earning the victory.

In the opener for the Bullets, Davis went 4-for-5 with a run scored.  Posch and O'Grady had a pair of hits for the guests.  Gettysburg had nine hits in the opener.  On the mound, Brett Harrington got the loss and falls to 0-1.  He went 3 1/3 innings, allowing three hits, three walks and one run, while striking out a batter. 

In game two, the Bullets scored in the top of the second to take a 1-0 lead.  Karagjozi singled to right-center to plate O'Brien for the opening run in the nightcap.  The Shoremen tied it in the last of the second on a sacrifice fly by senior Dwight Wilcox (Annapolis, MD/St. Mary's) that scored Rolewicz.

Rolewicz put WC up 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth when he socked his second home run of the season and second in three games down the right field line.

Gettysburg took the lead for good in the nightcap with four runs in the top of the sixth, three of which were unearned.  Posch scored on a fielding error by WC to tie the game at 2-2 with one away.  With two outs, the Bullets scored three times to take a 5-2 lead.  O'Grady singled to right to score Simon and O'Brien to put the guests up by two runs and Davis singled to left to plate Karagjozi to give Gettysburg a three-run cushion.

The Bullets added a run in the top of the seventh on a Karagjozi single up the middle that plated Cody.

Washington would not go down quietly as they scored three times and had the winning run at the plate in the last of the ninth.  Normoyle led off the inning with a walk.  Rolewicz would single to right and the ball was misplayed in right and it allowed Normoyle to come around to score to cut it to 6-3.  On the same play, the Bullets tried to throw out Rolewicz at third base, but a bad throw by Gettysburg allowed Rolewicz to score to make it 6-4.  Cotterell singled to center and chased Gettysburg starting pitcher Drew Felsenthal and he was relieved by Chris Yoda.  Cotterell was pinch ran for by sophomore Pat Kinsella (Guilford, CT/Guilford).  The next hitter, freshman Scott Matthews (Goshen, NY/Don Bosco Prep (NJ) walked and moved Kinsella up to second base.  Both Kinsella and Matthews moved up 90 feet on a sacrifice bunt by Mahaffey for the inning's first out.  Kinsella would score on an RBI groundout off the bat of Wu to cut the lead to 6-5, but it was also the second out.  Matthews moved up to third on the groundout.  Yoda would get freshman Matt Christopher (Kennett Square, PA/Unionville) to line out softly to O'Brien as he jammed him for the final out of the game and the Bullets got the win in game two.

Davis went 3-for-3 with an RBI in game two and went 7-for-8 with three walks in the twinbill for Gettysburg.  Karagjozi went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored, while O'Brien went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.  O'Grady drove in two runs in the win as the Bullets had 10 hits.  On the hill, Felsenthal went eight-plus innings to improve to 3-1 on the year.  He allowed five runs on six hits, walking and striking out three.  Yoda recorded the save for his second of the year as he got the last three outs.

Rolewicz went 2-for-3 with three runs scored and an RBI in game two and Cotterell had a pair of hits.  Rolewicz was 4-for-7 with four runs scored and three RBI in the twinbill.  The Shoremen had six hits in game two.  On the mound, junior pitcher Joe Kearney-Argow (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) had the loss and falls to 3-1.  He allowed five runs, two earned, on eight hits in six innings.  He walked two and struck out three.

Washington is back in action on Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in a Centennial Conference game versus Franklin & Marshall at Athey Baseball Park.