DMA prevails over cross-road rival Conrad

 

 

Thursday afternoon was our First State Orthopedics Game of the Week between #1 DMA & #6 Conrad in a battle between two baseball titans in the state.  Both teams came into the game with 8-1 records, DMA’s defeat coming at the hands of Tower Hill, while Conrad’s lone loss came to Caravel.  

 

DMA had their ace on the mound, as University of Delaware commit Tyler August got the start.  The senior has had many MLB scouts out to see him behind home plate with radar guns throughout the first 9 games of the Seahawks season.  What’s not to like?  August sports a mid-90’s fastball and deceptive breaking pitches in his arsenal.  

 

The Red Wolves started a sophomore pitcher that those around the state who follow baseball better familiarize themselves with, Brady Wardell.  The tall righty would impress those of us at Delaware Live Sports with this outing, as he attacked hitters regularly with a plus fastball all afternoon.

 

The game was a pitchers’ duel early, in its own way.  August was sharp early, despite the Red Wolves best efforts to work counts.  Through his first four innings of work, the Seahawks righty had 8 strikeouts and only allowed one baserunner into scoring position.  Wardell worked out of jams in the first two innings, allowing a baserunner to reach third in both innings, but not allowing a run to score.  This was followed up by a 1-2-3 inning in the 3rd.  

 

DMA would strike first in the 4th inning.  After a Logan Wiley single with one out, and back to back two-out walks to Nathan Golden & Samuel Diaz, Tyler August would step up with the bases loaded.  He would drive a single into right field that would score Wiley and Golden and give DMA a 2-0 through 4 innings of play.

 

The second half of this game was as exciting as high school baseball gets.  The fifth inning was led off for Conrad by their 9-hole hitter, Kaden Netta, who drew a 4-pitch walk.  This brought the Arcadia commit, Solomon Abdullah, up.  Abdullah to this point was 0-2 for the game with a strikeout and ground out.  He would work himself into a hitters’ count, 3-1, then would launch an August fastball into the neighborhood behind the left-field fence for a huge game-tying two-run home run.  

 

August would continue to have some command issues on the 5th.  After a strikeout on a full count to the number two batter, Matt O’Connor.  He would give up a single to Brett Walmsley, and then throw three wild pitches to the next two batters which would allow the courtesy runner Seth Strecker to advance around the bases and give Conrad a 3-2 lead after 5 innings.

 

The Seahawks would then score two unearned runs in the top of the sixth, after a huge single up the middle by Diaz, and tack on an insurance run in the 7th.  

 

Conrad would threaten in the bottom of the 7th inning after another lead-off walk by Netta, Abdullah would scorch a double off the center field wall.  Runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, manager Aaron Lewis would go to the bullpen for senior Drew Simpson to work out of the jam.  Simpson would fall behind the following batter, O’Connor, 3-0 and battle back and get a fly out to Logan Wiley in right-field.  After an intentional walk to the dangerous Walmsley, he would collect a huge strikeout and a fly out to end the game and earn the save.  

 

The 5-3 victory moved DMA to 9-1 on the season with their next game 4/22 against Newark High School.  First pitch scheduled for 11am.  Conrad dropped to 8-2 with a tough matchup with undefeated St. Mark’s on Sunday afternoon at 1pm.