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Post 104: Not too offensive

County’s best legion team getting by with pitching, defense and timely hitting

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Gaithersburg Post 295 dominated Montgomery County’s American Legion league the last three years thanks to a well-rounded effort that included dominant pitching, steady defense and an explosive offense.

So far this summer, it is rival Gaithersburg Post 104 that has cruised to first place while mostly employing just two of those qualities, without the benefit of a high-scoring offense. Heading into Tuesday’s contest with Rockville Post 86, which ended too late for this edition, Post 104 had won 11 of its first 12 games.

Considering how dominant Post 104 has looked through the first half of the regular season, one can only wonder how good the team could be with a consistent offense to complement its stingy defense and deep pitching staff.

‘‘Hitting has been kind of a little inconsistent,” said Post 104 manager Joe Stolz, whose squad played just once last week thanks to a quirk in the schedule. ‘‘Some games, we hit real well, and other games, we don’t hit at all. We didn’t hit [Rockville’s] Kevin Fuqua in the game they beat us, 3-2, and against Greenbelt [a 3-1 win June 18], we didn’t hit that well.”

Post 104’s batting average is .287 —respectable, but not overwhelming — while the team has struck out 79 times compared to 42 bases on balls. The squad has knocked in 62 runs and belted seven home runs, including two by Matt Sweeney, whose legion summer was cut short when he signed a minor-league contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim after being drafted earlier this month.

In Sweeney’s absence, Gaithersburg has relied on outfielder Alex Bastow (.400, 6 doubles, 10 RBI, 10 runs); infielders Peter Barrett (.381, 11 RBI), Bobby Kim (.316) and Ian Marshall (.353); and catcher Rick Phillips (.276, 10 RBI).

While the team’s offense has been up and down, the pitching staff has been a model of consistency, producing a 2.50 earned-run average with 52 strikeouts in 70 innings pitched. They had surrendered 25 earned runs.

Right-hander Mike Allred had proven to be the ace of the staff, compiling a 5-0 record with a 0.55 ERA and a save in 25 2⁄3 innings. He picked up the win against Laurel Post 60 last Tuesday, a 9-8 victory in nine innings, with 2 1⁄3 innings of scoreless relief.

Besides the pitching of Allred, Post 104 used a balanced offensive attack to beat Laurel. Phillips had two doubles and drove in three runs. Dennis Schoonmaker had two hits and two RBI, and Marshall had a triple and an RBI.

‘‘What we’ve done is designate two pitchers each game, and we have a quick hook if the first guy gets into trouble,” Stolz said. ‘‘We get him out quickly and get the second guy in. We have enough pitchers that it has worked so far.”

Stolz’s deep staff took a hit last week when experienced right-hander Marty Cornish broke his leg in a collision with a baserunner while he was turning a double play on Thursday while playing for the Gaithersburg Sports Association’s team in the Eddie Brooks League.

‘‘He’s one of our top pitchers and players,” Stolz said. ‘‘He’s a gutsy player, but like I’ve said before, we have so many good players on this team, we should be fine.”

Post 104’s schedule will intensify this weekend with the Chaney Tournament in Southern Maryland.