Jessop, Shain, Help Spartans Take Crown
ASHBURN, VA - In a battle to decide the Kings of the Dulles District regular season, The Potomac Falls Panthers traveled to Ashburn to take on the Broad Run Spartans, in a rematch from earlier in the season, where the Panthers prevailed at home, 2-1. Both of the starting pitchers in that contest, Broad Run's Cole Shain, and Potomac Falls' Jake Kline, would go at each other in Wednesday's contest, too.
Potomac Falls got on the board in the top of the first when Greg Woodlief hit an infield single and was forced at second on a fielder's choice by Aaron Sweger. Sweger advanced on a passed ball and Michael Spring drove in Sweger on a double to deep left center. Broad Run answered in the bottom half of the inning when Chris Jessop hit a double to left field and scored on Tommy Meier's single up the middle. Billy Rocca came in to pinch run and stole second on a close play at the bag. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and Cole Shain followed with a ground ball to the right side that eluded the gloves of both Sweger and second baseman Jake Orpin, allowing Rocca to score on the error as the Spartans took a 2-1 advantage.
The Panthers responded with a three-run third inning when Rob Malan singled to left. Woodlief was then hit by pitch and with runners on first and second with one out, Sweger followed by driving the first pitch he saw into left to score Malan. Following a sacrifice fly by Spring that scored Woodlief from third, Pat Nightingale lined a double to center field to score Sweger and give Potomac Falls a 4-2 lead.
The Spartans came right back in their half of the inning when Jessop reached first on a passed ball despite striking out swinging on the pitch. He preceded to steal second and advanced to third on another passed ball before scoring on a groundout to short by Meier making the score 4-3.
In the fourth, Broad Run picked up the game winning runs when J.P. Devlin reached on a ball to shallow right that Chris Pelto dove for but dropped when he hit the ground. Following a strikeout, pinch hitter Bubba Bernstein hit a single to right and Mann followed with a single to left to load the bases. Jessop then hit a two-run single up the middle just out of the reach of Woodlief and both Devlin and Murphy scored to put the Spartans back on top 5-4.
In the fifth inning, Cole Shain took a line drive in the groin area from Malan. After making the play, Shain was on the ground for 15 minutes while the trainer assessed his injury. The big senior shook it off and completed the game for the Spartans to avenge his lone loss of the year. Both he and Jacob Kline pitched great games with Shain recording 6 strikeouts and Kline 9 strikeouts.
The Spartans can clinch the regular season district crown with a win against Dominion on Thursday, while a loss would mean a one game playoff on Friday with Potomac Falls. The Dulles District tournament begins this Saturday.
