JOHNSTOWN —
Baltimore’s pitching staff saw its scoreless streak end, but the Youse’s Maryland Orioles didn’t waste any time starting a new one.
After giving up a run in the first inning, Keenan Kish and Brad Markey combined to shut out Philadelphia over the final eight innings on Thursday as Baltimore won the battle of AAABA Tournament unbeatens 4-1.
Steve Shelinsky’s RBI single marked the first run given up by Baltimore pitching in 20 innings, but the Orioles (4-0) answered quickly with two in the bottom half of the inning. Chris Cook tripled and scored on Patrick Blair’s single. Blair then scored when shortstop Sean Coyle couldn’t handle Chad Taylor’s ground ball.
That was enough for the Orioles, who got 42/3 innings from Kish, who is headed to the University of Florida. Markey, who will play for Georgia Tech next season, picked up the inning with 41/3 of scoreless relief. They combined for just two strikeouts, but also held Philadelphia to just four hits.
Baltimore manager Tim Norris was pleased with Kish’s performance, even if he didn’t go long enough to get the win.
“He did a good job, got us halfway through,” Norris said.
Markey was just as solid for the Orioles.
“It’s not a hard job when you have a defense like ours,” Markey said. “And our offense makes it really easy for all of the pitchers. Everyone’s really supportive. When you start getting down, they pick you up.”
Norris hasn’t seen many down moments from his team, which has outscored the competition 32-2 in the tournament.
“Pitching and defense have been outstanding,” Norris said. “We could have had a little more timely hitting today, but we’re playing well right now. Hopefully we play a couple more good ones.”
Baltimore will face either New Orleans or Chicago at 1 p.m. at the Point, and Norris knows that his team still has a long way to go for a record 27th championship.
“Usually nobody goes undefeated,” he said. “You never know here.
“New Orleans lost the first one and came all the way through (last year). We’ve done it before, so take nothing for granted here.”
Philadelphia will play Delweld at 7 tonight, and manager Mike Gossner likes how his team is set up for a possible run to the title game.
“We’d rather be undefeated of course, but we’ve still got arms,” he said. “I think we’ll be back.”
Philadelphia’s arms were fine on Thursday – starter Tommy Stolzer and relievers Gerald Dougherty and Nathan Jendrzejewski combined to give up just one earned run – but the Bandits couldn’t get anything going offensively.
“It was a tough one,” Gossner said. “We really didn’t swing the bats today.”
Stolzer gave up seven hits in six innings while striking out two and walking two.
Baltimore got two unearned runs in the seventh. Harry Slade reached on another error by Coyle and scored on Glynn Davis’ double. Davis came around to score on Philadelphia’s third error, this one by catcher Stephen Sulcoski.
Markey didn’t need to worry about such things with Baltimore’s defense, which made the routine plays as well as the difficult ones.
“(They’re) like vacuums out there,” he said.
Cook had three of Baltimore’s 10 hits while Robert Amaro had two. Blair stole three bases.
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Related Photos
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JOHN RUCOSKY/THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT Baltimore left fielder Harry Slade makes a sliding catch during his team’s 4-1 victory over Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon at Point Stadium. John Rucosky
Discussion
Baltimore wins battle of unbeatens in AAABA
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