Bowie claims series lead over Churchill with 9-4 victory
By Mark Kusenberger
tsrnsports.com
Special to SAsports.com
Miguel Maldonado struck out 9 and Brent Owen drove in 5 runs, giving the Bowie Bulldogs a 9-5 victory over the Churchill Chargers in Game One of their best-of-three bi-district playoff series.
Bowie then completed the sweep of the Chargers on Saturday afternoon.
Each team started their winningest pitcher at shortstop. Churchill’s Jason Williams, a 7-game winner, started at shortstop for the Chargers while Ethan Cole and his 10 wins started at shortstop for Bowie.
Bowie took an early lead against Churchill’s Michael Kraft (2-5.) Kraft walked James Aldridge on five pitches to lead off the bottom of the first. David Ramirez tried to sacrifice, but bunted way too hard. Or maybe not: the Churchill third baseman, charging on the play, fell backwards fielding the bunt and had no play once he recovered; Ramirez was awarded a hit. Two outs later, Kraft walked Miguel Maldonado to load the bases. Then Brent Owen smashed the first pitch he saw to the right field corner, clearing the bases and giving Bowie a 3-0 lead.
Bowie added a run without a hit in the fourth on an RBI walk by Blake Bohuslav, then scored 4 in the fifth to extend the lead to 8-0.
Meanwhile, Maldonado (7-3) was masterful through five. He had a one-hit shutout going into the sixth before Churchill finally did some damage.
The Chargers tried to get some smallball going, but to know avail. After Brooks Freisenhahn walked, he was caught stealing on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play. In the fourth, when Riley Nipper tried to from second to third on a grounder to shortstop, he was thrown out by the first baseman on a strange 6-3-5 double play.
In the eighth, Churchill rallied. Dustin Aguilar singled, then scored when Clint Sharp tripled over the center fielder’s head. Sharp scored on a double by Friesenhahn to make it 8-2, then Friesenhahn went to third, then to home on wild pitches to cut the deficit to 8-3. Each team exchanged runs in the seventh to complete the scoring.
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