Post 295 baseball is not outstanding in the field

Five errors contribute to 11-1 loss to Greenbelt

One player that was thinking about the game at hand was Greenbelt pitcher Brian Dearstine. The rising senior at DeMatha came into the game with little knowledge of Gaithersburg’s lineup, despite the fact that Post 295 boasted a pair of hitters at or close to .400 this season in Mike Ryan (.450 batting average) and John Brauch (.390). Yet, throwing mainly fastballs, and occasionally mixing in some off-speed pitches, Dearstine, a right-hander, confounded Post 295’s vaunted lineup.

‘‘The plan was to keep the ball low and locate my fastball,” he said. ‘‘I knew the guys behind me could make plays. I just wanted to throw strikes.”

Greenbelt’s (12-4) defense provided Dearstine with the cushion he needed to operate. After allowing a Peter Marratto triple with one out in the first inning, he stuck out Brauch, and then allowed Johann Knee to slash a fastball to deep center field. But, the ball hung up long enough to be caught, and from that point on Dearstine settled down. He scattered six hits over seven innings, allowing one run, and got stronger as the game went on. Dearstine retired the last eight Gaithersburg batters in a row.

‘‘Right now things are working for us,” he said. ‘‘We are trying to win as many games as we can.”

The same can be said for Gaithersburg (6-6), but errors have cost them dearly. In the first inning, it seemed as if Post 295 would be sure handed, as Ehret got out of a bases loaded, one-out jam by inducing a ground ball to Marratto at shortstop, who turned a textbook 6-4-3 double play. But, in the third inning, the wheels came off. With one out, and facing the top of the order for the second time, Ehret allowed a double to James Najera who moved up to third when Brauch, playing third base, threw the ball into the outfield trying to force the speedy Najera out at second. Najera, who went four for five in the game, scored one batter later, when Devin Rivers singled, and Rivers advanced to second when Ehret overthrew first base on a pickoff attempt. Things continued in that vein, as a frazzled Ehret (0-1) allowed three more singles and a double in the inning. Post 295’s defense committed three more errors, including an overthrow of home plate by Knee from first base that allowed the sixth and seventh runs of the inning to score. By the time Brock McCallister grounded out to end the inning, the game was effectively out of reach.

‘‘We can’t wait much longer for them to get going,” Price said of his team, which has won the Montgomery County Division and advanced to the state tournament in each of the last three seasons. ‘‘We’re losing games. The pitchers need more support than they have been getting. They deserve more effort from their [teammates] than they have been getting.”

The good thing for Post 295 is that they do not have to wait too long to put this loss behind them. Gaithersburg played on Tuesday against Bethesda Post 105 (in a game that finished too late for this edition of The Gazette) and will play games on Wednesday and Friday as it gears up for the Blue-Gold Classic in Utica, N.Y. at the end of the month. Maybe by the time they come back, Post 295 will have figured out their fielding woes.

‘‘They don’t have too long to turn this around,” Price said. ‘‘That is something they will have to impress upon themselves.”

Notes: Gaithersburg scored its only run of the game in the fourth inning, when Kevin Johnson’s two out triple drove in Brauch, who had singled earlier in the inning. ... Greenbelt’s final runs were added in the seventh, when Najera drilled a two-run home run for his fourth hit of the day.