South Riding, Va. ⎯ The Freedom High School Eagles came out firing on all cylinders, with seven players posting at least one RBI in their 12-8 win over the Forest Park High School Bruins in their VHSL Region 6B semifinal on May 31 in South Riding.
It was junior reliever Ryan Marohn who put on a show on the mound in this one. Entering the game with two outs in the top of the second with his Eagles down 3-4, the lefty NC State-commit not only got out of the inning, but got through the remainder of the game, earning the win and finishing the evening with 5.1 innings pitched, giving up only one earned run on four hits and three walks while striking out seven.
[adrotate banner=”56″]At the plate, it was the Bruins who jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first, on the back of a leadoff triple from junior starter Harrison Ludington—who scored on error—and an RBI double from senior first baseman Zinny Kemahu later in the inning. The Eagles came right back in the bottom of the first, however, taking a 3-2 lead following an RBI sacrifice fly from sophomore center fielder Griffin Burkholder.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Eagles put the game out of reach. Down 3-4 heading into the inning, the Eagles loaded the bases for junior first baseman Eli Edelman, who drew a walk to score the tying run. Sophomore third baseman Justin Lanouette and junior shortstop Christian Carver were then both hit by pitches, bringing home two more runs and leaving the bases loaded for senior catcher Cal Henderson.
With the count at 1-0, Henderson hit a double down the third base line, clearing the bases and extending the Eagles lead to 9-4.
Junior designated hitter Mason Butash followed this up with a double of his own, as the Penn State-commit brought home sophomore courtesy runner Colton Protiva, grabbing his second RBI of the night and moving the score to 10-4 in favor of the Eagles.
Next at the plate for the Eagles was Burkholder, who delivered once again, securing his second RBI of the night on a single to center field, bringing home Butash and putting the Eagles ahead 11-4.
Burkholder would then score on an error by the Bruins, and the inning would come to a close shortly after, with Freedom leading 12-4.
“I don’t know if it’s adjustments per se. We’ve been pretty offensive all year so I think for us it was just not pressing and trying to get ahead of ourselves,” Freedom head coach Mark Wrighte said. “I think we had a lot of confidence in our offense.”
The Bruins would try their best to mount a comeback, putting up four runs in the final two innings, but the attempt fell short, as the Eagles secured themselves a spot in the VHSL Class 6 State tournament, as well as a date with the Colgan High School Sharks on June 2 to see who will be crowned the 2022 VHSL Region 6B champion.
“I think we benefit from playing a lot of teams out of district that—I think on paper—honestly look a lot like Colgan,” Wrighte said. “So for us, I don’t think we have to do anything special. We have to do what we did against Battlefield. We have to do what we did against Patriot. We have to do what we did against Independence. We have to do what we did against Riverside. We just gotta play our good baseball game that we’ve done half a dozen times. I think if we play our best game, we’ll be dominant. If we play a good game, we’re gonna be pretty good.”