Baseball: Severna Park Falcons Roll Over North County Knights

As the old saying goes, when it rains, it pours.

The skies opened up in the first inning of Wednesday’s game between and Severna Park and although the rain never really amounted to much more than a drizzle, it was the Falcons who poured on the runs.

The Knights got off to a horrible start in their matchup against Severna Park. North County went through five pitchers in the first inning alone as the Falcons racked up 17 runs on 11 hits.

batted through their lineup twice before Trevor Freeman—who had already scored two runs in the first—popped out to second to end the onslaught.

The Falcons scored nine more runs on the day as they rolled over the Knights, 26-2.

“That’s pretty embarrassing,” said North County head coach Wayne Feuerherd Jr. “I am embarrassed for the kids and I am embarrassed for us as a program."

Not only was Severna Park on fire at the plate, tallying 20 hits on the day, but the Falcons’ Andre Haushalter pitched a near flawless game. Haushalter hurled 3.1 no-hit innings before North County’s Cody Chester hit a two-run single in the bottom of the fourth to end both the no-hit bid and the shutout. But Haushalter stayed on the mound, eventually earning the complete game win after pitching five innings while giving up just four hits and two runs.

“Sometimes it’s tough to pitch with a lead like that and stay focused,” said Severna Park head coach Jim McCandless. “But he did a good job staying focused and throwing strikes.

Haushalter also contributed on offense, going 2-4 with three runs. But the Falcons’ biggest bat belonged to centerfielder Connor Wells. Wells knocked in six runs while going a perfect 4-4 from the plate.

“Up and down the lineup, everyone hit the ball well today,” McCandless said.

Conversely, the Knights could not buy a base hit.

North County, who managed just four hits, did not get its first of the game until the fourth inning on Chester’s two-run shot. 

Chester was also North County’s lone bright spot on the mound. After the Knights gave up 24 runs with five different pitchers in just 1.1 innings, Chester came in and went to work.

“If you take one positive out of this, it is that Cody Chester came in and he actually did a pretty good job,” Feuerherd said. “He got some outs and we [needed] outs bad at that point.”

Chester allowed two runs (one earned) in 3.2 innings. But by the time Chester went to work, the gap was already too big for the Knights to overcome.

“We didn’t show up to play, we didn’t show up to hit and we didn’t show up to pitch,” Feuerherd said. “You can blame it on anything—bottom line, we just didn’t show up to play.”

With the loss the Knights fell to 1-2 on the young season while the Falcons improved to 2-1.

“This isn’t North County baseball,” Feuerherd said. “I will put it that way.”