Post 295 making its move up legion baseball standings

Gaithersburg Post 295 5, Damascus Post 171 3

With six wins in his team’s last seven games this summer, including Monday’s rain-delayed 5-3 win over county-leader Damascus Post 171 at Quince Orchard High, Price once again has a newly formed team in thick of the playoff race.

With Monday’s win, which included two clutch hits by Matt Civetti and a strong effort by Kevin Johnson on the mound, Gaithersburg improved its record to 9-7, placing it just a game behind Post 171 (15-7 overall, 10-6 in the county’s division). The other teams in the playoff race — four teams make the postseason tournament that sends one team to the state playoffs — are Laurel Post 60 (8-5), Cissel Saxon Post 41 (9-6) and Gaithersburg Post 104 (10-7).

‘‘We’re finally starting to play pretty good baseball,” said Price, whose team had won six of its last seven games dating back to June 11. ‘‘This win was pretty huge for us. It’s a shot of confidence. We’ve played good baseball the last week and a half.

‘‘I think it’s because we’re starting to pick each other up and we’re getting to know each other. It’s a totally new team. It’s a new mix.”

Once the primary destination for players in the Post 295 area — a draw that mainly includes Quince Orchard and Northwest High players — the formation of the Gaithersburg Sports Association’s 22-and-under wooden-bat team has depleted the team’s ranks the past two years as elite players such as Jensen Pupa, Brady Stouffer and Andy Moldawer have decided to move on to perceived higher competition.

Price, in fact, has seen a total of 20 new players come in and out of his program the past two years, yet Gaithersburg rolled through last year’s county tournament without a blemish, capping the run with a 10-9 championship victory against Post 104.

And like last year, Post 295 has overcome a slow start to keep pace with the rest of the field this summer.

‘‘Any win is good [right now],” said Post 295 shortstop⁄pitcher Kyle Judson, who induced a groundout by Mike Serafinas to end the game while in relief of Johnson. ‘‘It’s been kind of rough. We seem to have people coming in and out of the lineup but we’re starting to figure it out.”

Damascus, however, has fallen back a little bit since opening the season with six wins in its first seven league games. Post 171 entered Tuesday’s contest with Post 41 having split its past six league games although it did go 5-1 at last weekend’s Pennsylvania-based Bellfonte Tournament before running out of pitching in the final, a 7-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Bulldogs.

‘‘We’re real happy with the way we played [in Pennsylvania],” said first-year Damascus manager Dan Boyd, whose team could be without top pitcher Drew Hoffmaster (12-1 record during the high-school season at Sherwood) the rest of the way because of a possible stress fracture to his right, throwing shoulder. ‘‘Everybody played really well but we’re not set up to play three doubleheaders in a row. Losing Drew is a problem.”

A slow offensive start plagued Damascus Monday as Johnson limited Post 171 to just one unearned run through the first six innings. Damascus finally broke through in the seventh inning, loading the bases with two outs on a walk by Eric Berringer and back-to-back singles by Brett Daly and Austin Bernardo.

After a meeting at the mound by Johnson and Price, which Johnson asked to face one more batter, Tom Gilchrist, in his first game back since playing for Team Maryland in Oklahoma, singled to right field to cut the deficit to 5-3.

Judson, also back from Team Maryland, then closed the door on the rally and picked up the save inducing the groundout by Serafinas, Damascus’s clean-up hitter.

‘‘It was an inside fastball,” Judson said. ‘‘He just got on top of it.”

Boyd added: ‘‘We started hitting the ball in the seventh but you have to start early against a good team like that. You can’t let a good team get up four on you.”

Post 295 grabbed the 5-1 lead with three runs in the fourth and another one in the fifth after a rain delay caused by a passing thunderstorm. Civetti tripled in a run to start the fourth inning rally and Nick Loftus followed with a sacrifice fly to center field.

Spencer Pearman later scored on a slow roller out in front of the plate by Judson. Post 171 pitcher Brett Hammann threw to Bernardo at first in time but Bernardo could not come up with the ball, allowing Pearman to score from second base.

In the fifth, Johnson singled with two outs and was knocked in by Civetti for the four-run advantage.

‘‘We’re starting to get some clutch hits,” Price said.