Huntingtown High School senior pitcher Andrew Ghrist delivers a curveball to the plate in the top of the first inning of last Thursday’s game against Severna Park. Ghrist allowed five runs, three earned, in 5 1/3 innings of work but took the loss as the Hurricanes suffered a 6-5 setback to the unbeaten Falcons in the opening game of the Guy Smith Sr. Tournament the school hosted.
A plaque commemorating the exploits of Guy Smith Sr. stands just behind the home plate backstop of Huntingtown High School. On April 6, Huntingtown, Calvert and Severna Park competed in the annual tournament named for the longtime late former coach and father of current Hurricanes’ baseball coach Guy Smith Jr.
Huntingtown High School batter Cole Roschel awaits a pitch from Severna Park hurler Sean Williams in the bottom of the first inning while Hurricanes’ teammate Logan Hastings takes a lead off second base after opening the inning with a double. Hastings would score on a double by Roschel, but eventually the Falcons emerged with a 6-5 victory as the Hurricanes’ seventh-inning rally fell one run short of tying the game.
Calvert High School pitcher Andrew Seawell fires to the plate in the bottom of the first inning of last Thursday’s game against Severna Park at Huntingtown. In a rough outing, Seawell took the loss after allowing 10 runs in 1 & 1/3 innings of work as the Falcons cruised to a 16-1 victory over the Cavaliers in the Guy Smith Sr. Memorial Tournament.
Huntingtown High School senior pitcher Andrew Ghrist delivers a curveball to the plate in the top of the first inning of last Thursday’s game against Severna Park. Ghrist allowed five runs, three earned, in 5 1/3 innings of work but took the loss as the Hurricanes suffered a 6-5 setback to the unbeaten Falcons in the opening game of the Guy Smith Sr. Tournament the school hosted.
Staff photo by Ted Black
A plaque commemorating the exploits of Guy Smith Sr. stands just behind the home plate backstop of Huntingtown High School. On April 6, Huntingtown, Calvert and Severna Park competed in the annual tournament named for the longtime late former coach and father of current Hurricanes’ baseball coach Guy Smith Jr.
Staff photo by Ted Black
Huntingtown High School batter Cole Roschel awaits a pitch from Severna Park hurler Sean Williams in the bottom of the first inning while Hurricanes’ teammate Logan Hastings takes a lead off second base after opening the inning with a double. Hastings would score on a double by Roschel, but eventually the Falcons emerged with a 6-5 victory as the Hurricanes’ seventh-inning rally fell one run short of tying the game.
Staff photo by Ted Black
Calvert High School pitcher Andrew Seawell fires to the plate in the bottom of the first inning of last Thursday’s game against Severna Park at Huntingtown. In a rough outing, Seawell took the loss after allowing 10 runs in 1 & 1/3 innings of work as the Falcons cruised to a 16-1 victory over the Cavaliers in the Guy Smith Sr. Memorial Tournament.
It was a tale of two dramatically different outings last Thursday afternoon, April 6, when Huntingtown High School hosted the annual Guy Smith Sr. Memorial Tournament as unbeaten Severna Park High of Anne Arundel County edged the host Hurricanes in the opener before upending Calvert in a lopsided affair.
Huntingtown (5-3) actually scored first against Severna Park (8-0) in the first game of the tournament, named in honor of the late father of Hurricanes’ baseball coach Guy Smith Jr. But during the middle frames the Falcons forged a modest advantage and then took a 6-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh, although they would have to settle for a narrow 6-5 victory.
Huntingtown had managed only one run in five innings against Severna Park starting pitcher Sean Williams, a double by Cole Roschel that plated Logan Hastings in the home half of the first inning. Huntingtown then managed an unearned run against reliever Nathan Clarke in the sixth, but the Hurricanes truly made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh.
Roschel again proved to be at the center of the rally when he smacked a two-run double then came around the score three batters later when Mason Wells delivered a single to left and Connor Wilkerson, who had worked Clarke for a two-out walk, took third. But the Falcons’ avoided their first blemish of the spring when Clarke fanned Hunter Thomas swinging to end the contest and preserve the victory in a non-save situation.
“We wanted to see how we stacked up against the best teams and today we played the best team in the state,” Smith said. “Severna Park has some great arms and great hitters and we stayed right with them. A couple of plays in the middle innings that we could have made might have changed things. But I was very happy with the way our guys fought back.”
Roschel went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, three runs batted in and a run scored, while Hastings went 2-for-4 with a double and scored twice on doubles by Roschel. Huntingtown senior hurler Andrew Ghrist took the loss, allowing five runs, three earned, in five and one-third innings of work. Severna Park scored three runs in the fifth, two in the sixth and one in the seventh and all six runs occurred with two outs in those respective innings.
“We always welcome the chance to play against the best competition,” Roschel said. “Drew [Ghrist] pitched a great game today against a really good team. We were so close to beating them. We just needed to make a couple of plays that could have taken away and few runs.”
While the opening game of the tournament offered more than a hint of drama in the bottom of the seventh inning, the next game was a foregone conclusion very early. Severna Park maintained its perfect start to the season by toppling Calvert 16-1 as the Falcons broke open the contest by scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the second inning.
Severna Park scored two runs on four hits in the bottom of the first inning and left the bases loaded, something the Falcons did twice in the victory over Huntingtown in the opener. Calvert got an unearned run in the top of the second against Severna Park starter Nathan Murphy when Gavin Brickerhoff, who reached on an error, scored on a wild pitch to trim the Cavaliers’ deficit to 2-1.
But that would prove to be the last time the score was close. Severna Park erupted for 10 runs on five hits, four walks and four wild pitches. Kody Phillips drew one walk and scored on a double by Clarke and later in the same frame he further added to the onslaught by belting a two-run homer over the fence in left center. Charles Hartman had a two-turn double in the home half of the third.
Murphy limited the Cavaliers to one unearned run in four complete innings then reliever Seamus Patenaude fanned two of the three Calvert batters he faced in a scoreless fifth in a non-save situation. Calvert starter Andrew Seawell took the loss, allowing 10 runs, all earned, in one and one-third innings of work while southpaw reliever Jaxson Lee allowed six runs, five earned in two and two-third innings on the hill.
