Stone Bridge Falls to McLean

By Matt Brooks (Contact)

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The schedule set up perfectly for Stone Bridge and leading up to Tuesday’s tilt with Virginia AAA Liberty District rivals McLean, the Bulldogs had executed their game plan. In back-to-back games against Langley and Madison to end last week – two of the three teams above them in the league standings – the Bulldogs took care of business with two straight victories. Now they had their chance to force a tie with McLean for first place and get a little redemption from their 4-3 home loss to the Highlanders back in March.

After waiting out a one-hour-and-15-minute rain delay, Bulldogs senior starter Nick Fialdini put forth one of his best outings of year, matching McLean’s junior ace Denis Buckley in a true pitcher’s duel that lasted past 10 p.m. But despite taking a one-run lead into the bottom of the sixth inning, Stone Bridge saw the Highlanders plate three runs with opportunistic hitting and aggressive base-running to dig out a 4-2 victory.

Fialdini looked strong as he began the bottom half of the sixth, inducing a flyout before giving up a double to Jordan Ghanam. After a groundout, pinch-runner James Oldenberg stood on third base with two outs, representing the tying run. Fialdini got a 1-2 count on the ninth hitter in McLean’s batting order, junior outfielder Charles Geiger, but his fourth pitch was in the dirt and squirted past sophomore catcher J.J. White. Fialdini scrambled to the plate, trying to beat Oldenberg to apply a tag, but White’s throw from the backstop was too low for him to handle and the game was tied at 2-2.

"He was dead at the plate," Stone Bridge Coach Sam Plank said. "Nick was a little bit late getting there, but we practice that. Baseball's a game of inches, and when you're up 2-1 with a 1-2 and get a passed ball, that hurts."

On the very next pitch, Geiger – who McLean Coach John Thomas said had never hit a home run in batting practice, let alone a game – crushed a 2-2 fastball over the center field fence to give his team a 3-2 lead. The Highlanders scored once more before senior pitcher Johnny Bladel could get Stone Bridge out of the inning.

Buckley was brilliant for the Highlanders (9-3, 6-1) in a complete-game effort. The 2008 all-Liberty district first team pitcher took control of the Bulldog hitters with his fastball early on and then started to go after them with his bread-and-butter pitcher, the curve. The heart of the Stone Bridge batting order could never get their timing down on the pitch, which resulted in eight strikeouts for Buckley and only three hits for the Bulldogs.

"We've got four games in four days this week, Denis threw 115 pitches and that was not ideal," Thomas said. "But we really had to extend him because we needed to save our pitching for later in the week and clearly he stepped up big-time."

The Highlanders got on the board in the first inning when Sean Fitzgerald trotted home from third base on a balk by Fialdini. But in the top of the third, Stone Bridge scored twice to take the lead. Junior third baseman Taylor Lambke singled to shortstop to bring home senior Pat Piccolo from third and following an intentional walk to Bladel, White drew a bases loaded walk to plate sophomore Spenser Rositano for a 2-1 lead.

But that was all the Bulldogs (10-4, 5-3) would get on a night when they stranded nine base runners and left six runners in scoring position. Three times Stone Bridge had a runner on second or third with one or no outs and all three times they failed to drive him in. Buckley was partly responsible as he struck out back-to-back hitters with the bases loaded and one out in the third to keep Stone Bridge from getting any more runs. But the Bulldogs couldn't find a way to help themselves either as they routinely hit hard groundballs to the left side with a runner on third base and failed to get the ball to right field to advance their runners.

"When you give that many chances away to put a team away, it always comes back to get you in the end," Plank said. "We left so many runners on base and so many opportunities."

Fialdini took the loss for the Bulldogs despite a stellar performance in which he allowed four runs on four hits, with five walks and eight strikeouts. Rositano, junior Michael Mattingly and senior Bryce Williams had the only hits off Buckley.

The Bulldogs are now two games back of McLean but far from out of the hunt with the way the district's top teams have beaten up on one another to this point. In the Liberty District, the top two teams in the regular season automatically qualify for the Northern Region tournament while the district champion isn't decided until the final game of the district tournament. And as far as Plank is concerned, as long as his team is playing its best baseball in May, they'll be in good shape.

"The regular season in the Liberty District is all about finishing one or two," Plank said. "That's what you play for all year, getting to regionals so you can get to the prize. We still have all that in play."

Extra Points

By Paul Tenorio and Matt Brooks