Baseball: Third Inning Explosion Blasts Lansdowne Past Pikesville, 11-0

After falling to Pikesville, 12-2, just yesterday, Lansdowne didn’t have to wait very long to enact revenge—they faced off against the Panthers again Tuesday afternoon.

This time around, behind a strong effort from starter Sam Warfield and a merry-go-round third inning at the plate, the Vikings cruised to an 11-0 win in five innings via the 10-run mercy rule.

Already ahead 3-0, Lansdowne (8-3) sent 13 batters to the plate in the third frame, lighting up Pikesville pitchers Dane Epstein and Doug Lavin for eight total runs in the inning.

Senior Alex Kurth, who went 1 for 2 with two RBIs and scored three runs, said the Vikings' plan from the get-go was to jump on the Panthers' pitching early on in the at bat.

“You try and put the bat on the ball and look for first pitch strikes,” Kurth said he advised his team prior to the game. “Some people don’t listen and some people listen—it felt good.”

Aside from catcher Brian Kummerlowe (who contributed with a walk and threw out a runner trying to steal second), each Lansdowne starter either scored a run or drove one in.

“One through nine we hit the ball today,” Lansdowne head coach Matt Kohel said. “Yesterday missing our No. 1 and No. 4 batters hurt us. It’s definitely much better to see the boys hit the ball today.”

With the strong offensive output, Warfield, a sophomore, had all the run support he’d need en route to his fifth win of the season. The powerful right-hander struck out five and allowed just four hits over his five scoreless innings, and his hard-biting, two-seam fastball produced some weak contact from Pikesville hitters. 

Aside from Tete Obot’s smoking line drive single to right field in the top of the fourth inning, the Panthers (6-8) struggled to make sharp contact off of Warfield.  

“You could tell he was definitely a two-seam guy. The ball had a little bit of run to it and it made it hard for our guys to really square the ball up,” Pikesville head coach Joe Kramer said. “I think we only had one base hit that really pounded itself out of the infield. Everything else was just real ‘chintzy’ stuff, handle shots.” 

However, even if Pikesville had strung a few hits together off of Warfield, the third inning explosion for Lansdowne more than likely would have been too much to overcome.

For all the clean base hits the Vikings put together in the inning, Lansdowne’s eight-run rally actually began with an error. With runners on second and third and one out, a Warfield grounder made it through the legs of Pikesville third baseman Tyler Kennedy to plate Kurth (who led off the inning with a walk) and get the ball rolling.

After sophomore Brad Childress' two-run double split the outfielders in left center and made the score 6-0, Kramer opted to pull Epstein and plug in another left-hander, Lavin, to try to stop the bleeding.

However, following a single and a hit batter, Shane Montgomery drove in two more with a solid single to left. The Vikings would tack on three more runs—including an RBI single by Mike Morris who doubled earlier on in the inning—before Warfield, up for a second time, flew out to put an end to the lengthy third frame.

Although his team only recorded two errors for the game and fell victim to several indefensible hits, Kramer still looked for his team to perform at a higher level defensively in terms of aspects of the game that don’t show up in the box score.

“The kids, they know exactly what they’re supposed to do,” Kramer said. “They know that with a runner on second base they got to come up firing to home plate [on a base hit]. Twice we didn’t do that, and once or twice [on plays at] third as well. Small things that don’t show up in the scorebook make a huge difference scorebook at the end of the game.

“These guys know that they are good baseball players and they know that they are better than what they put out there today, so you try and remind them of who they are, where they come from and what they are capable of.”

Meanwhile, with only a few regular-season games left on the schedule, Lansdowne will try to parlay Tuesday’s win into a strong post-season effort.

Said Kurth, “We’re feeling good. Hopefully we can take this momentum into the playoffs.”

BOX SCORE

Lansdowne 11, Pikesville 0, 5 innings

P 000 00----0 4 2

L 308 0x----11 9 1

Pitching                              

P                             IP            R             H             BB           K

Epstein (L)           2.1          7              4              3              2

Lavin                      1.2          4              5              1              2

L

Warfield (W)      5              0              4              0              5

Batting

RBI: L-Childress 3, Kurth 2, Warfield 2, Montgomery 2, Morris.

2B: L-Morris, Childress, M. Shook.

SB: L-Montgomery, Miller, M. Shook.