Knights Unable to Find a Win against the University of Connecticut at Avery Point

By Madden Mellner

Rosedale, Md.– The CCBC Essex Knights baseball team entered their doubleheader against the University of Connecticut at Avery Point Pointers coming off a 2-1 win over the CCBC Cardinals in their first home contest of the season.

The Knights kept pace with the Pointers through two innings thanks to center fielder Liam Bowers. After being walked, Bowers stole second and later scored off an error by the Pointers second baseman. Following a scoreless third inning, the Pointers took a 4-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning. Liam Bowers again came up big in the fourth inning for the Knights. Following being hit by a pitch, Bowers would steal second. He would then steal third, rounding for home, where we would score after a throwing error by the catcher.

The Knights would tie things up in the fifth off an RBI double from first baseman, Armando Prieto, resulting in catcher Manuel Jackson tallying the run. Unfortunately, this is where the game would end for the Knights, as they surrendered a run in both the sixth and seventh innings. The Knights rallied to load the bases in the bottom of the seventh but ended the inning leaving the winning run on base.

Armando Prieto lead the team with one RBI, and tied the team lead with one second base hit. Others to reach second on a hit were Mitchell Haywood and Manuel Jackson. The team totaled seven stolen bases throughout the game which were recorded by five different players. Liam Bowers led the team in stolen bases, with three. Manuel Jackson, Emmanual Maldonado, Daniel Silgado, and Alvin Carela each recorded one stolen base.

Joshua Youngberg would get the start in this game. Joey Galloway would enter the game in the fifth inning for one scoreless inning of relief. In the sixth inning, Reed Adams would come in as another one inning replacement before closer Ian Babey would finish out the game.

The final score of game one, was 5-3 in the Pointers favor.

The Knights second of the double feature would be cut short due to the sun setting and the game being deemed too dark to finish.

The Knights came out of their short break between games firing. Through the first two innings, the Knights would take a commanding 3-0 lead. Manuel Jackson would tally two RBIs in the first  off of a single that would end with him getting thrown out at second. Waskar Vincente Martinez and Mitchell Haywood would both score on the play. In the second inning, Liam Bowers would score off of a sacrifice by Daniel Silgado.

The Pointers would match the Knights three run lead in the top of the third inning with three runs of their own. This however would only last until the bottom of that same inning, as the Knights added two more off a two-run home run by Emanuel Morales. Errors would cost the Knights the win in their second game of the day as the Pointers would score twice off of errors in the fourth inning, leaving the game tied at five runs each. A scoreless fifth inning would be the last of the day as the sun fell behind the trees, causing the game to be unplayable. As the game was already through 5 innings, it will count in the record books as a tie.

The team lead for stolen bases would be a three player tie between Manuel Jackson, Liam Bowers, and Logan Leasure. Manuel Jackson would also tie Emanuel Morales for the team leader of RBIs in the game with 2 each. Daniel Silgado would be the only other Knight to record an RBI in the game.

After closing the previous game, Ian Babey would get the start. He would throw two scoreless innings before being replaced by Harry Fegan. Fegan would pitch another two innings, where all five Pointer runs of the game were scores, all unearned. The eventual closer, Matt Hite, came in to throw a scoreless and hitless inning before the umpires called the game.

The Knights will return to battle on Tuesday, March 15, traveling to Harford Community College for a doubleheader that starts at 1:00 pm.