Frederick, MD – The most successful season in Garrett College baseball history ended with a pair of losses in the NJCAA Division II Region 20-West tournament.
Third-seeded Hagerstown Community College defeated the second-seeded Lakers, 6-3, on Friday, and top-seeded Frederick Community College eliminated GC, 16-9, in Saturday's losers' bracket. Garrett finished the season with a 36-19 record.
Brandyn Gonzalez singled in a first-inning run and Bryce Madden pitched three shutout innings as Garrett took a 1-0 lead into the fourth inning against Hagerstown. Madden, however, slipped and fell while fielding a fourth-inning comebacker and had to leave the game with a dislocated shoulder.
"He was cruising with five strikeouts for three-plus innings," said GC head coach Eric Hallenbeck. "It was unfortunate and kind of set the tone [for the weekend]."
Hagerstown tied the game in the top of the fourth before Christian Harrington (2-for-4, two runs) homered in the home half of the inning to give GC a 2-1 lead. The Hawks, however, tied the game when Braylon Conner (2-for-5) blasted a run-scoring double in the fifth.
Pinch hitter Hunter Finkenbinder put the Hawks ahead to stay with a sacrifice fly that scored Ethan Shimmel as part of a three-run, sixth-inning rally that gave Hagerstown a 5-2 lead. Hawk Kyle Lore delivered a run-scoring single and Quinn Illig (2-for-4) scored on a throwing error as part of the three-run sixth inning.
Garrett got a run back in the home seventh as an Angel Oquendo sacrifice fly scored Harrington. The Hawks, however, produced an insurance run on Griffin Lowman's RBI single in the eighth.
Peyton Castellow (9-1) pitched a complete-game five-hitter, striking out nine and walking two while allowing just two earned runs.
"Castellow pitched well," said Hallenbeck. "He's a competitor. He kept the ball down and let his defense work for him."
Ethan Sebold (6-1), who relieved the injured Madden, took his first loss of the season as he yielded four runs (two earned) on five hits and a walk in 2 1/3 innings.
On Saturday, Garrett erased a 5-2 deficit against Frederick with a four-run fourth inning as Gonzalez hit a game-tying, three-run homer and Harrington followed with a solo shot. The Gonzalez homer was his 20th of the season to go with 80 RBI.
"That's pretty amazing," said Hallenbeck of Gonzalez's season, which set team records for homers and RBI. "If he's not a first-team all-American, I don't know who is."
Frederick regained the lead with a two-run fifth, but Gonzalez and Harrington had consecutive, run-scoring singles in the sixth to put GC back on top, 8-7.
The Cougars tied the game on a Cooper Harris sacrifice fly in the home sixth. Frederick took the lead for good when Clayton Dorsey slammed a three-run, seventh-inning double for an 11-8 advantage.
Easton Rhoten's eighth-inning homer pulled GC within 11-9, but the Cougars put the game away with a five-run eighth climaxed by a two-run single by Harris (four RBI).
Casey Westerberg (4-for-5, three runs, two RBI), Jacob Downey (3-for-4, run, RBI), William Gisriel (2-for-3, two runs, RBI) and Dorsey (2-for-5, five RBI) had multi-hit games as Frederick combined 14 hits with 15 walks against eight Garrett pitchers.
"That was our Achilles heel all season," Hallenbeck said of free passes permitted by his pitching staff. "Walking 15 against the 10th-ranked team in the country, I'm surprised it was just 16 runs [allowed] ."
Matthew Koeneke (4-1) earned the win in relief, allowing a run on two hits with three strikeouts and three walks in three innings.
While the Lakers failed to make a deep playoff run, Hallenbeck said he will look back on all his team accomplished this season.
"It was a record-breaking season with a lot of great memories," said Hallenbeck. "Unfortunately, it just goes too quick."
Notes: Frederick won the NJCAA Division II Region 20-West tournament, beating Hagerstown twice in the finals, 6-3 and 6-4.
PHOTO CUTLINE
Garrett College's Easton Rhoten homered in his final game as a Laker last Saturday, but that blast couldn't prevent GC's elimination by eventual champion Frederick Community College in the NJCAA Division II Region 20-West tournament.
