New Town Bounces Back Against Western Tech After First Inning Debacle

Although a couple of hard hit balls and a few defensive mistakes put New Town in a 5-0 hole before they even swung the bat Wednesday afternoon against Western Tech, the Titans and starting pitcher Jason Terry certainly never counted themselves out.

Rather than bemoan their early mistakes and pack it in, New Town sprang into action with the bats, accounting for 10 runs (including six extra base hits) over the next six innings, and the relentless Terry took care of the rest.

The right-hander fanned 13 Wolverines (with no walks) and allowed just four base runners after the first inning debacle, keeping his team in the game before the Titans (5-3) scratched back to take a 7-5 lead on John Scott’s two-run single in the bottom of the fifth.

New Town would add three more insurance runs in the sixth inning to capture a 10-5 win.

“They are really good about keeping their heads up, staying together as a team and putting the bat on the ball,” Titans coach Chad Zamarron said of his squad.

“We never get down on ourselves.”

 After a horrendous first inning, the Titans had every reason to do just that.

Western Tech (4-4) sent eight batters to the plate in the opening frame including Kenny Pease who delivered the games first runs with a two-RBI single up the middle to open the scoring. James Davis (3 for 4) plated Pease with a triple to deep left to make the score 3-0.

Two New Town errors later and the score was 5-0. 

However, Terry worked his way out of the jam with no further damage and was virtually untouchable the rest of the way, keeping the Wolverines off balance by mixing up his fastball, curveball and change-up effectively.

“He was working the outside pitches to right-handers and the umpire was giving it to him,” Western Tech coach Brad Hoskin said of Terry. “He worked with what the ump was giving him—that’s fundamental baseball. We certainly congratulated him because he pitched a good game.”

After the first inning, Western Tech’s pitchers didn’t fare nearly as well.

Following a scoreless first, Wolverines starter Ricky Racks allowed a single and then three consecutive walks to New Town’s 7-8-9 hitters before leaving with a painful cramp in his right leg.

Racks gave way to Desean Rabb, who New Town pounded for seven hits and five runs over four innings.

No ball was pounded harder and farther than the one that came off the bat of Michael Kemp to lead off the bottom of the third.

Kemp (3-4, three runs) stroked a Rabb fastball to deep left field, over a storage trailer and onto the New Town track to make the score 5-4. After Brian Short (3 for 3) followed with a triple, Adrian Collins tied the game with a sharp single in the hole between short and third.

Zamarron attributes his squad’s positive attitude to their ability to fight and come back—pointing out an Owings Mills loss from a couple weeks back as the last time his players sulked and let their mind-set slip.

 “After that they’ve really supported each other,” Zamarron said. “You come running off the field, with a positive attitude, it keeps everyone else up and ready to go.”

BOX SCORE

New Town 10, Western Tech 5

WT 500 000 0----5 10 1

NT  032 023 x----10 13 3

Pitching

WT                         IP            R             H             BB           K

Racks                     1              3              3              3              1

Rabb                      4              7              5              1              3

Pease                    1              2              3              0              2

NT

Terry                     7              5              7              0              13

Batting

RBI: WT-Davis 2, Pease, Marino, Hadel.

        NT- Terry 2, Short 2, Scott 2, Roche, Kemp, Collins, Watkins.

2B: WT-Pease, Hadel.

       NT-Terry 2, Short.

3B: WT-Rabb, Davis.

       NT-Dowdy, Short.

HR: NT-Kemp.