Apr. 12—MORGANTOWN — If you were anywhere near Kendrick Family Ballpark on Friday night, you would've heard no shortage of the ping of a bat making contact with a baseball as the Morgantown and Urbana (Md.) baseball teams combined for 27 hits in a 20-run contest.
Unfortunately, the Mohigans had just six runs to show for their 13 knocks on Friday. As for Urbana, 14 hits yielded as many runs as MHS (8-6) fell 14-6 on day one of the Mon County Classic.
The Hawks only went empty in one inning in the contest, scoring four runs in the fourth and sixth and three in the seventh to put the game away.
Kiegan Rupinta led Urbana, going 4 for 4 at the plate with three RBI and two runs. Kai Henkins, Jackson Bredeson, and Carson Velickoff each tallied a pair of hits for MHS.
The Mohigans added five runs in the final two innings but couldn't come closer than eight runs of the lead.
"That's a very talented, competitive team over there who has the opportunity to be one of the top teams in the state of Maryland come the end of the season, " MHS head coach Pat Sherald said. "I'm really proud of the fight our guys showed. They were a powerful hitting team, and we ran two freshmen on the bump, Jackson Bredeson and Braylon Adrian, who competed for us. This is one of those games we will absolutely get better from."
Urbana tallied a run in each of the first and third innings to pull ahead early, but MHS got a run back in the bottom half of the third as Mason Bowers singled, scoring Henkins from third to cut the lead to one.
However, that's as close as the Mohigans would come to the Urbana advantage as the visitors swelled the lead in the fourth with four runs on four hits, hiking the lead to 6-1 before a ground out stopped the bleeding.
MHS went down in three straight batters in the bottom half of the frame, and the Hawks added a seventh run with a double to center field that scored Rupinta from first base in the top of the fifth.
The lead was 11-1 in the sixth before MHS found two runs as Bredeson and Lincoln Thronton singled to scores two runs.
But three more for Urbana in the top of the seventh slamed the door on any hopes the Mohigans had for a comeback despite three more runs for MHS in the bottom half.
MHS fell on Friday but turned around Saturday morning and picked up a win against top-ranked Jefferson with a 3-0 shutout.
"That's the beauty of baseball, right ?" Sherald said. "We get to wait 12 hours and get up and have another opportunity to get better and pick up a win. Competition has been outstanding for us this season, we just have to stay tough and keep getting better."
BOX SCORE Urbana 14, Morgantown 6 UHS 101 414 3 — 14 14 1 MHS 001 002 3 — 6 13 6 Urbana (6-2) — Welch 4011 Lee 0100 Collins 3200 Lipscomb 3222 Swaney 5223 Zarroli 4200 McIver 1010 Rupinta 4243 Yagesh 3021 Vetter 5111 Staub 3011 Katz 1000 2B: Lipscomb (2), Swaney, Yagesh, Vetter 3B: Rupinta Morgantown (8-6) — Bowers 3011 M. Boggs 1110 Mazey 2110 McCardle 1111 Aloi 2000 Welickoff 2121 Joseph 4011 Bredeson 4021 Thornton 3011 E. Boggs 2000 Shinn 1000 Henkins 3220 Nipper 3010 (W) Johnson: 4.0ip 5h 1r 0bb 2k (L) Bredeson: 4.1ip 9h 7r 2bb 2k
