Baseball - Millbrook 11, JW 1

Posted: May 17, 2014
By GREG BRILL
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — To finish up a perfect slate in the Northwestern District, the Millbrook baseball team had to withstand a good challenge Friday night from James Wood.

And to finally get a grip on things, the old baseball adage “a game of inches” came into play for the Pioneers.

A two-out misplayed flyball in the fourth inning helped Millbrook push across four runs in the frame, and behind a quality start from junior Colin Benner, the Pioneers went on to a closer-than-it-looks 11-1 win at R, Charles Hott Field to wrap up a 12-0 campaign in the district.

Millbrook (17-1 overall) gave the Northwestern a second-straight program to run the table in district games (Sherando did it in 2013 on its way to a first-ever state title) and solidified what will be the No. 1 seed for the Conference 21 tournament, which starts next week. The Pioneers will have a week off before hosting an opening-round game next Friday, likely against Dominion out of the Dulles District.

With a still-young lineup that features just two seniors in the field (shortstop Jacob Jaye and first baseman Matt Hendershot), Millbrook established itself as the team to beat in the Northwestern early on. The Pioneers closed their regular season schedule on Friday and will take a school-record 17-game winning streak into the postseason.

Perhaps this season could provide a first-ever trip to the state playoffs. Millbrook has reached one goal already, capturing the program’s first Northwestern District title since 2005.

Brian Burke was an assistant at Sherando back then, but in his fourth season leading the Pioneers, he has seen his team grow and get many contributions throughout this season. Besides watching Benner toe the rubber and dominate his old team, Burke saw freshman Kyle Keenan fill in quite well in his first game with the varsity — going 3 for 3 with two RBIs batting in the eight-hole.

“I’m amazed,” said Burke. “I knew we had a good club coming in, but I certainly didn’t expect [this kind of success] to happen this quickly. These kids have been the best [to coach] since Day 1. They work hard, they’ve met expectations. Certainly, no one thought that [we would have] a 12-0 district record.

“We’ll continue to get after it like [the playoff opener] is just like any other game. We’re not going to put any extra pressure to do anything except go out and play [the same way] that’s got us here.”

Coming off an emotional 3-2 win on Wednesday at Sherando to wrap up a season-sweep of the second-place Warriors, the Pioneers went into Friday’s game without the district’s top RBI leader in freshman outfielder Conor Hartigan (he did not dress and was resting a hip-flexor, according to Burke. The coach said Hartigan will be ready for the playoff opener). Burke also played catcher Alex Amos in left field to allow him some rest from behind the plate.

With that move, Keenan made the most of his opportunity to show what he could do.

Already with an infield hit in his first at bat, Keenan batted for a second time in the fourth with Millbrook trailing James Wood (10-7, 4-6) 1-0. With two on and two outs, Keenan lofted a fly into center field. James Wood center fielder Kacee Duggan did not get a good read playing shallow and tried to make up ground by trailing back. But attempting a diving catch, the fly fell just out of Duggan’s reach and fell for a hit. Hendershot and Austin DeTray scored to make it 2-1, and the Pioneers were on their way.

“It probably looked easier than expected [off the bat] and he probably wasn’t going full speed. I don’t know, because I haven’t talked to him about it yet,” said James Wood coach Brent Lockhart. “He looked like, ‘It’s a routine catch,’ and then, ‘Oh, crap, I can’t get to it.’ I mean, he’s caught everything in the outfield so far. It happens.”

Whitacre, who pitched splendid for much of his five-inning outing, followed by giving up a bloop, RBI single to Amos before a wild pitch scored Bruce Keenan from third.

Millbrook would not score again until breaking it open with seven runs against James Wood’s third of four pitchers, Noah Keller, in the seventh, and Burke knew the value of being able to get a few breaks against a pitcher like Whitacre (five innings, six hits, four earned runs, two walks, six strikeouts) who had his moments against a feared offense like Millbrook’s.

“I thought Whitacre did an outstanding job for James Wood tonight,” said Burke. “I think he had us a little bit fooled and I thought we might get to him a little bit quicker.”

Millbrook loaded the bases with no outs in the first and came up empty. Whitacre was cruising until the fourth, when Keenan’s double started a snowball affect.

“That’s just something [going without scoring a run in the first inning] where we’re just not focused and dialed in,” said Burke. “When you have a chance to break the game open and you fall flat on your face, it makes you wonder if it’s going to be your night or not.”

Seeing Whitacre give his team a good chance to compete was a welcome sight for Lockhart.

“He threw all three pitches for strikes,” said Lockhart. “He kept it low and kept them off balance.”

As solid as Whitacre was, Benner was right right there with him. From the first inning to his last inning (the sixth), Benner attacked the strike zone and made few mistakes. He knew he had to stay within himself and not get too wrapped up with the fact that he was making his first apperance at the field he called home his first two varsity seasons.

“A bunch of emotions came through,” said Benner. “Like [Burke] said, go ahead and keep my emotions [in check] and stay humble and keep it all inside.”

Benner started with two strikeouts in the first inning to retire the Colonels in order. James Wood came alive in the second, though. Eli Warren ripped a double to deep center leading off, and Nick Goode dropped a perfect bunt up the third-base side. Goode had the play beat, and Benner’s overthrow to first allowed Warren to score for a 1-0 lead and Goode to move to second. Goode stole third with one out, but that’s where he stayed, as Benner struck out the side to get out of the inning.

Benner would go on to retire 11 straight before Keller grounded a single to right with two outs in the fifth. Benner gave up two straight hits with one out in the sixth, but he did not give Warren anything to hit and forced a routine fly out to center for the second out and got Goode looking at strike three to end the sixth and end his stint.

“I was pretty happy with how it turned out,” said Benner. “I gave up a good shot to Eli [on the second-inning double] over there, but after that, I had to stay humble and do what I needed to do out there on the mound.”

All told, Benner threw just over 90 pitches, allowing five hits, no earned runs, no walks, and struck out nine.

“The last few outings, he’s been around 60 [pitches], so we wanted to push him a little [Friday] and get him to 80, and as long as he kept us in the game we were going with him,” said Burke. “He was right on 90. He wanted the opportunity to pitch against his old team. We gave him fair warning that if he lost his emotions early, we had a short leash. He stepped up and did an outstanding job. It’s tough to go against old teammates, but I thought he stayed within himself and gave us a chance to win the game.”

Freshman Anthony Simonelli closed it down in the seventh.

The Pioneers ended up with another game in double-digit scoring by blowing things open with a seven-run seventh. Millbrook opened with five straight hits, including a two-run single from Hendershot. Pinch-hitter Andrew Grove also drove in a run with a single. Millbrook had six of its 13 hits in the seventh, and Keenan (3 for 3, three RBIs), Hendershot (2 for 4, two runs scored), Jaye (2 for 3), and Trenton Burgreen (2 for 5) all had multiple hits.