Gaithersburg throwing in strikes, not the towel

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Wasn’t the Gaithersburg High baseball team supposed to struggle on the mound this season?

After all, the Trojans lost two of Montgomery County’s best pitchers in All-Gazette first-teamers Ian Marshall (5-2, 2.27 earned-run average) and Austin Hurd (7-1, 1.33), who are now throwing for the University of Richmond and Towson, respectively.

The arrival of St. John’s transfer Nick Franceski and the emergence of little-used pitcher Rick Phillips, however, have vaulted the Trojans into early contention for the county’s 4A South Division title and for the top seed in the 4A West Region playoffs with a 6-1 record through Monday.

Franceski improved to 3-1 on the season with Monday night’s 5-3 win over host Blair, allowing three runs on five hits with three strikeouts in a complete game. He threw an economical 88 pitches in seven innings.

Offensively, Gaithersburg rallied from a 3-2 deficit in the seventh behind a key pinch hit by Ryan Hudson that sparked a three-run inning. Phillips, the team’s heavy-hitting catcher, went 2 for 3 with an RBI and two runs. Mike Lee had a double and a stolen base, and Stephen Delmar worked two walks and knocked in a run on a sacrifice fly.

‘‘We’re playing well, but we have to improve at the plate a little bit,” Trojans coach Jason Woodward said. ‘‘We need some timely hits. We have the bases loaded at one point and we get nothing out of it or we hit into double play. We haven’t produced that big inning.”

Phillips started Gaithersburg’s week with his second win of the season, pitching all six innings in the team’s 11-0 pounding of Walter Johnson. He struck out eight and went 2 for 4 with an RBI at the plate. Phillips is now 2-0 with 18 strikeouts on the season.

‘‘I expected big things and he has delivered,” Woodward said.

Sandwiched in between those two games was the team’s 4-0 win over Seneca Valley (1-4 through Monday) on Saturday afternoon. Sophomore pitcher Kevin Brady earned the win in his first varsity start, allowing three hits with four strikeouts in seven innings of work. Phillips went 3 for 4 with an RBI in that game.

‘‘We’re playing good defense and we’re getting a little lucky,” Woodward said. ‘‘Balls have bounced our way a couple of times at the plate.”

Gaithersburg’s next challenge comes Wednesday against Whitman (4-1).