Panther's Rally Falls Short 11-10
(Game Recap Provided by Panthers Baseball Insider)
STERLING, VA - In Spring Break baseball action Monday night, Potomac Falls mounted a comeback in the bottom of the seventh inning by scoring 4 runs on Rob Malan's three run homerun, but their rally fell one run short as they lost to the Musselman Applemen in a non-district contest, 11-10.
The Panthers jumped out to an early 4 run lead in the first inning behind RBI's by Aaron Sweger, Malan, Jacob Kline and Chris Pelto. Sweger and Pelto both slammed doubles.
Panther pitcher Mike Detaranto was cruising along in the game early, only giving up one hit until the third inning, when Musselman scored three runs on a walk, hit batter and then two doubles. The Panthers got out of the inning when the Applemen's Jeremy Cunningham hit a sacrifice fly to left field, and Ryan Larose got caught trying to go to third base on the throw home.
Potomac Falls added two runs in the fourth inning to go up 6 to 3 when Chad McMichael, Sweger, and Malan led off the inning with consecutive walks. Mike Spring was then hit by a pitch to force in one run and Pelto hit into a fielder's choice to plate the other. The Panthers wasted a good opportunity to put more runs on the board with two bases loaded strikeouts.
Musselman then exploded for seven runs in the top of the 5th inning to take the lead. After giving up a walk and two hits, Detaranto was replaced by Brian Griffin, and the Applemen greeted him with 3 straight hits followed, by an infield error to plate 7 runs and take the lead 10 to 6. They then added what turned out to be the game winning run in the 6th inning on another infield error followed by a double from Cunningham.
Potomac Falls tried to mount the comeback in the bottom of the seventh inning. After getting two quick outs, McMichael was hit by a pitch and Sweger followed with a double down the third base line. Malan then launched an 0-2 pitch over the left field fence for a three run homerun. Spring followed Malan with a single and scored on Kline's single to right field to cut the score to 11 to 10 before the final out was made.
Offensive highlights for Potomac Falls included Rob Malan going 2-3 with a homerun and 4 RBI's, Aaron Sweger going 2-3 (2 Doubles), Chad McMichael 2-3, and Jacob Kline 2-4.
