LILLY — Washington D.C.’s McLean Raiders won the battle of the big guns of the Beltway, surviving a 5-4 game with defending AAABA champ Baltimore Youse’s Maryland Orioles in an errorless, second-round contest Tuesday at Lilly Washington Memorial Field.
“We know a lot about Baltimore, being from the same area,” Washington manager Eric Smith said. “They are definitely the best team here and the team you have to beat to win the championship, so all of our guys are excited. I’m happy for them. They played well.”
Washington will take on Philadelphia in a meeting of unbeaten teams while Baltimore plays New Orleans in an elimination game.
Baltimore struck first as Jeff Rowland led off with a walk by winning pitcher Cassidy McDaniel, scoring on a triple by Gerald Hall. Hall was plated on a single from Patrick Long (2-for-3) for a 2-0 advantage.
Washington went ahead in the third. With one out, Taylor Buran singled to center field and Brett Williams drew a walk.
Daniel Lopez (2-for-4) singled to center to load the bases for Wade Kirkland’s triple to deep right-center field. A sacrifice fly by Greg Bachman scored Kirkland for a 4-2 advantage by Washington.
McDaniel was lifted for Jake Pruner in the seventh.
The McLean Raiders got a one-out triple from Davis Hewett in the top of the ninth.
Brandon Padula’s sacrifice fly brought home Hewett for what turned out to be the game-winner.
“The one thing we did was when we had runners in scoring position, we took care of it,” Smith said. “We came up with some clutch hits, the way we’ve played all year.”
After relieving Pruner in the ninth, Tyler Sanders earned the save. Despite giving up two Baltimore runs on three hits, Sanders was able to get a ground-out to end the game as the Orioles left the bases loaded.
“The last inning was hectic, but that’s what you play the game for, and to come through and win it means a lot,” Washington left fielder Chris Duffy said.
Duffy helped keep his team in the game, tracking down a long shot that saved a pair of Baltimore runs in the seventh.
“I was just trying to read it off the bat and catch it,” Duffy said. “If I was a few steps too late, I probably could have missed it, but I was going hard at it and I got it in my glove.”
Baltimore manager Dean Albany was philosophical after the tough loss.
“We have a lot of pitching left,” Albany said. “We had one bad inning and they took advantage of it. We hit so many balls hard at them and had runners in scoring position and couldn’t get the big hit.”
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