JOHNSTOWN —
By ERIC KNOPSNYDER
eknopsnyder@tribdem.com
Blake Geiger felt like he was fighting an uphill battle in the first inning on Friday.
After New Orleans scored four quick runs, Geiger’s Baltimore teammates must have had the same feeling.
Geiger settled down, combining with reliever Benjamin Carhart for eight scoreless innings and Patrick Blair’s two-run single in the sixth gave Baltimore a 5-4 win that moved the Orioles within a victory of their 27th AAABA Tournament championship.
At 5-0 Baltimore is the lone unbeaten team in the tournament and will play Johnstown’s Delweld at 1 this afternoon. Delweld would need to win twice to capture Johnstown’s first championship while the Youse’s Maryland Orioles would only need one victory, though manager Tim Norris isn’t planning a victory parade just yet.
“I’ll be happy when we win one,” he said. “I’ll feel good after we win the next game.”
After one inning on Friday, it looked like the Orioles would have a much tougher path. New Orleans, the defending champion, scored four runs – twice as many as Baltimore had allowed in winning its first four games combined – as Geiger struggled with the mound at Point Stadium.
“That first inning I was just trying to throw strikes and get outs from contact,” said the 19-year-old Geiger, who plays for Essex Community College. “But I had a little trouble with the mound. The clay is a little higher than the rubber, so I felt like I was throwing uphill. I left a few balls up, and they got some pretty good hits off me.”
Chad Gough-Fortenberry hit a two-run single for New Orleans (4-2) while Alex Prestenback had an RBI single. A wild pitch by Geiger allowed the fourth run to score.
“He didn’t give up four runs all year,” Norris said. “I think he only gave up three runs in the Ripken League all year. That was a little unusual.”
The rest of the game, Geiger looked more like the pitcher Norris was used to seeing. Geiger pitched into the seventh inning, allowing just two more hits. He struck out three in the game and did not walk a batter, though he hit one.
“It was a little rough in the first inning, but nobody panicked,” Norris said. “We’ve been behind all year and came back. We just gutted it out and put up goose eggs the rest of the way. We had a big inning ourselves and got one more run than they did.”
Kevin Hockaday doubled and scored on Dante Rosenberg’s base hit in the fourth, and the Orioles finally got to New Orleans starter Matt Pittari in the sixth. Chad Taylor, Hockaday and Rosenberg singled to load the bases. Harry Slade hit a tapper back to the mound that scored a run. Pittari hurt himself by walking Glynn Davis to load the bases again and then hit Chris Cook to drive in a run.
That set up Blair, who singled up the middle to complete Baltimore’s comeback.
“We hadn’t been in that position all tournament, but we’d been in that position pretty much all year in our league,” Blair said. “We had a lot of games like that. This team has great chemistry, and great chemistry wins these types of games.”
Carhart pitched the final two innings for the save and gave Baltimore – which didn’t qualify for the tournament last year – a great opportunity to win a championship for the seventh straight time its come to Johnstown.
“Whoever we play, they have to beat us twice,” Geiger said. “We’re feeling pretty confident about that. The pressure will be on the other team, we’re looking forward to hopefully coming out on top.”
The pressure was on New Orleans from the outset, as the Boosters lost their opener to Toledo on Monday. A year ago New Orleans lost its first game before ripping off six consecutive victories to clinch the championship.
“We were hoping we’d have the same magic we did last year,” manager Bill Babin said. “If we’d have beaten Baltimore today we’d have been in the championship game tomorrow. That was our goal. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be there this year.”
Sports
Related Photos
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Baltimore catcher Dante Rosenberg tries to field the ball as New Orleans base runner Sean McMullen scores in the first inning on Friday. Todd Berkey
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