With a young team that includes only three seniors in the starting lineup, highs and lows were expected for the Marshall Statesmen this season.
An early up note for the high-school baseball team was a recent 10-0 victory over the Washington-Liberty Generals in a Liberty District contest.
“We are very young, but our players are fighting and that’s what we expect,” Marshall coach Mike Noyes said. “We have expected what has been happening so far.”
In that win over W-L, the Statesmen had 13 hits. Ben Jones led the way with four hits (two doubles) and two RBI, Nick Robinson had three hits, Noah Grossman had two hits and two RBI and Aiden Han, Owen Growney and Loudin Rodriguez each had a hit and one RBI. Jack Emory also had a hit.
Robinson threw all five innings to get the win, allowing three hits, striking out four and walking one.
In a recent 10-9 loss to South Lakes, Jones and Growney each had two hits, Han had a hit and three RBI, and Thomas Smith had a double and an RBI. Vincent Salvo struck out 11 batters in five innings of relief.
In an April 1 home contest, Marshall lost to the Herndon Hornets, 9-3, after leading 3-0. The Statesmen built the lead behind the pitching of freshman lefty Nathan Lake. He struck out eight in five innings, walked one, gave up four hits and two earned runs.
Marshall allowed five runs in the sixth inning and four in the seventh.
Jones and Han doubled in the loss and Growney homered.
* The Flint Hill Huskies (7-2, 1-2) gritted out a 3-1 home victory over Georgetown Day on April 2 in a Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference game. Steve Milman pitched six innings, allowed four hits and no earned runs with three strikeouts to get the win. Brian Bogle pitched the hitless and scoreless seventh inning to earn the save.
Flint Hill had five hits, with Jason Mendler and J.T. Landwehr having doubles, Jackson Emery an RBI single and Ben Weeks had an RBI groundout. Alex Freel added two hits.
Landwehr at shortstop, Stuart Morrison in right field and Sandro Dussek at second base made good defensive plays.
“Steve gutted it out on the mound and did a good job pitching to contact and we battled, we found a way to produce some runs, and found a way to win,” Flint Hill coach Mitch Mendler said. “We have 12 seniors, so the maturity level of this team is very high. They play with grit.”
* The Oakton Cougars (4-1) have been scoring runs in bunches with recent victories over Nicholas County, 18-3, Langley, 17-9, and West Springfield, 15-1.
Will Dornbusch, Ryan Sleight, Liam Andrews, Thomas Huitema, Noah Toole, Nick Toole, Ethan Jones, Robbie Lavey and Zach Danielczyk have been among the top hitters in those victories. Lavey and Sleight hit home runs, Jones had a four-hit game and Lavey and Danielczyk had three-hit contests.
Oakton scored nine runs in the first two innings in a game against West Potomac that was not finished because of weather.
* The McLean Highlanders (3-3, 3-0) defeated the host Yorktown Patriots, 7-5, to improve to 3-0 in the Liberty District in a recent game.
Senior right-hander Griffin Stieg started and pitched five scoreless innings of one-hit ball with 12 strikeouts to get the win. He walked one.
McLean used four relievers to finish the game.
Gavin Bartlett had three hits and two RBI for McLean, A.J. Poole had a hit and three RBI and Jakkob Luu had a hit and one RBI. Ethan Ball had a sacrifice fly.
* The Potomac School Panthers (5-3) routed St. James in a doubleheader, winning 17-3 and 11-1 in the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference games.
Kelly Crittenberger, Owen Peterson, Paul Witkop and Jason Seeber were the top hitters in the wins for the Panthers.
* The McLean Highlanders (4-1) defeated the Yorktown Patriots, 8-4, in Liberty District girls softball action. Abby Hart, Taylor Staats and Madeline Staats were the top hitters for McLean. Gabby Colder threw a complete game with six strikeouts.
* The Madison Warhawks (2-0) defeated Marshall, 8-3, and Langley, 6-5, in their first two girls softball games of the season. Graciela Dominguez, Ayla Condill and Katrina Swan were the big hitters in the wins for Madison.