Garrett's Season Comes To An End In Loss To Frederick

FREDERICK — No. 2 seed Garrett College's season came to an end in Saturday's Region 20 West Division elimination game, falling 16-9 to top-seeded Frederick.

For seven innings, it was anyone's game, then the Lakers (36-19) ran out of pitchers and the Cougars (46-10) took advantage.

The eighth inning was the big swing in momentum for Frederick.

After Easton Rhoten (Northern) sent a first pitch fly ball to left center for a solo shot, the Cougar lead was trimmed to 11-9.

When Frederick came to hit in the next half-inning, the floodgates opened.

William Gisriel and Kellan Smith doubled, Clayton Dorsey drew a bases-loaded walk and Cooper Harris scored two on a single.

After about 45 minutes, the eighth inning came to an end with Frederick's lead 16-9.

"We just ran out of guys getting outs on the mound," Garrett head coach Eric Hallenbeck said. "I don't know how many pitchers we used, we used everything we had. We kept it close, we battled like we normally do. It's just a matter of getting outs when they were important to us."

Garrett used five pitchers in the inning with two failing to record an out.

For the first seven frames, the lead was exchanged five times.

"They had traffic on base every single inning," Hallenbeck said. "Looked like every time they got a hit, it was a big hit. Two-run double, we make an error, two-run single, that's baseball."

The highlight for the Lakers was the fourth inning that featured back-to-back home runs on consecutive pitches.

On a full count, Brandyn Gonzalez sent a fly ball deep to right center for a three-run shot that evened the score at 5.

One pitch later, Christian Harrington followed with a solo shot that put Garrett ahead 6-5.

"We battled each other, this is game five," Hallenbeck said. "All the games have been close, we've battled, so we knew it was gonna be a pretty tight ball game."

Rhoten and Harrington led the Lakers with three hits apiece while Gonzalez drove in four runs off of two hits.

Garrett's record-breaking season came to an end with the Lakers winning 36 games, surpassing the 1976 squad's 32-11 mark for the most victories in program history.

Gonzalez surpassed Kent Freeman with 20 home runs this season, passing Freeman's 15 set in 1986.

"What I'll remember about this team is all of them are good guys, pulling for one another," Hallenbeck said. "Even when we're down 9, we're still pulling for each other. This team will be remembered. It hurts because we felt like we had a pretty good chance coming in here. We really didn't think we'd be the first one out, but sometimes it doesn't go according to plan."