Prep Baseball Report

VA/DC Scout Blog: McLean at Herndon


John Nolan
Virginia Scouting Director & Managing Editor

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On Thursday night, second place McLean took on first place Herndon in a late-season Liberty District showdown as the Hornets looked to avenge their lone loss of the season and the Highlanders looked to move into a tie for first. Both teams started junior righthanders, with McLean going with Griffin Stieg (Virginia Tech) and Herndon going with Kyle Henson.

The first inning went by scoreless, and McLean nearly got on the board in the top of the second when sophomore Chris Morabito led the inning off with a drive to straightaway center that was headed out of the park until sophomore centerfielder Mitch Maurer made a leaping catch and robbed Morabito of a home run. In the bottom of the first, Maurer came up with one out and runner on second and lined a single to left-center, driving a run in and giving Herndon 1-0 lead after 2 innings.

In the bottom of the third, Herndon scratched another run when Henson doubled to deep left and then his courtesy runner advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout by catcher Matthew Neach. After three innings, Herndon had a 2-0 lead.

The middle innings passed pretty quickly with Stieg recording a perfect fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. McLean loaded the bases against Henson in the fifth with two outs, but he was able to escape the threat with a strikeout.

Trailing 2-0 heading to the seventh, McLean started trying to mount a comeback as pinch hitter Robbie Coates doubled off of the leftfield fence with one out to bring the tying run to the plate. Leadoff hitter Kyle Luu then picked up his third hit of the game putting runners on the corners for Stieg. A wild pitch allowed the first Highlander run to score and moved Luu into scoring position. After a very long at-bat, Henson was able to get Stieg to ground out to the right side, moving Luu down to third with two outs. Up next for McLean was senior first basemen Jake Lynes (Catholic) who drove a full count pitch to center for an RBI single, tying the game.

 

With the game tied headed to the bottom of the seventh, Stieg was looking to get three outs to force extra innings while the Hornets were looking to walk it off. Andrew Horyczun drew a leadoff walk for Herndon and advanced to second on a wild pitch. A fly out and comebacker turned the lineup over with two outs and the winning run on third for sophomore third basemen Liam Willson, who delivered the game winning hit, giving Herndon the 3-2 win.

 

For Herndon, Henson was strong in a no-decision, going 6.2 IP, 2 R, 8 H, 4 K, 2 BB, while also going 1-2 with a 2B and a HBP at the plate. Horyczun was 1-2 with a BB and 2 R. Maurer, Neach, and Willson each had a hit and an RBI. For McLean, Stieg went the distance in the loss, going 6.2 IP, 3 R, 4 H, 4 K, 3 BB while also going 0-2 with 2 BB at the plate with a SB. Lynes was 1-4 with an RBI and Luu was 3-4 with 2 SB.

 

McLean 

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