Harford eliminates Skipjacks

HAGERSTOWN – Second-seeded Chesapeake College's run in the NJCAA Division I Region XX baseball tournament ended with a third-place finish as fourth-seeded Harford Community College blanked the Skipjacks, 11-0 in five innings, in Monday's losers' bracket final.

Norm Donkin (3-for-4, three RBI) delivered run-scoring hits as part of a three-run third, two-run fourth and five-run fifth inning for the Owls.  Teammate Jon McAllister (3-for-3) scored three times, including a first-inning run after a leadoff triple, and drove in two runs as part of Harford's 13-hit attack.

"They were able to capitalize right away," Chesapeake head coach Frank Szymanski said of the Owls' quick start.  "They also made the plays in the field.  Their center fielder, McAllister, made two plays at the warning track where he had to leap and catch the ball.  Their shortstop (Matt Petrizzi) made two great catches on line drives."

Owls pitcher Mike Torres struck out four and allowed just one hit, a double by Jacob Townsend leading off the second inning, in a complete-game effort.  Jordan Gowe, hit by a pitch leading off the home first, was the only other Chesapeake baserunner.

Chesapeake starter Tellef Notevarp took the loss, allowing four runs on six hits in 2 1/3 innings.  The Skipjacks, who burned up a considerable amount of pitching in a 9-8, 17-inning win over Hagerstown to open the tournament, fell into the losers' bracket Sunday with a 9-1 loss to eventual champion Potomac State.

We wanted to think that a game like that would give us momentum and confidence," Szymanski said of the Hagerstown contest.  "I'm just proud of the way we competed.  We gave it all that we had, but those two teams played better than us."

Szymanski indicated the only ingredient the Skipjacks (29-18) lacked this season was consistency.

"We were a streaky team," said Szymanski.  "We had two seven-game winning streaks, a nine-game winning streak, and two five-game losing streaks.  We were hot and cold."