Post 295’s state of mind

Gaithersburg is confident as its heads off to state tourney in Frederick

Now the question is can Post 295 be as dominant on a grander stage when the state tournament begins Friday at McCurdy Field in Frederick.

To do so, Gaithersburg, the winner of five of the past six Montgomery Division crowns, has to just keep on doing what it’s been doing all year — bash opponents offensively with its explosive lineup (.364 batting average, 9.5 runs per game) while limiting the opposition’s chances to few and far between (1.25 earned-run average, 255 strikeouts in 241 innings).

That formula helped Post 295 sweep its three county tournament foes by a combined score of 32-3 during last weekend’s county tourney.

‘‘If we continue to hit like we did today that would be good,” said Post 295 manager Rick Price, whose team pounded out 19 runs on 12 hits, including three home runs, against Post 41 Sunday. ‘‘That’s the way we started the season and because we have a lot of pitchers. I think if we can go a little bit in states, I think we can go a ways because we have so many pitchers.”

Seven Post 295 hurlers have throw 17 or more innings, paced by Charlie Cononie (7-0, 0.61 ERA), Dominick Vattuone (6-0, 0.33), Matt Sliwiak (4-1, 0.82), Kevin Johnson (3-0, 1.24), Mike Loeb (7-0, 2.70) and Mike Ryan (3-1, 0.31).

‘‘Our pitching is definitely a big reason that’s brought us this far,” said Cononie, a Northwest High grad who pitches in college for Towson University. ‘‘All of our starters can win us games at states. We don’t have any weak pitchers [and] we know the hitters will back them up. We’re ready to play anybody.”

It’s no wonder with an offensive lineup that normally consists of Matt Civetti (.433, 37 RBI, 12 doubles), Spencer Pearman (.413, 37 runs, 26 RBI), Nick Loftus (.402, 33 RBI), Kyle Ehret (.389, 32 RBI, 14 doubles), Jeff Flax (.364, 43 runs, 26 RBI), Gary Schneider (.359, 33 runs, 22 RBI), Kevin Johnson (.342, four home runs, 27 RBI), Kyle Judson (.324, 33 runs, 28 RBI) and John Brauch (.304, 31 RBI).

‘‘I think we’re going to roll on through states,” Schneider said. ‘‘I think we’ll do fine.”

Post 295’s first-round opponent, the Mountain District champion, was not to be decided until Tuesday night when Cissel Saxon Post 41 was to face Oakland Post 71. The Mountain District consists of just two teams, one shy of the three needed for an automatic berth to states for the champion. The runner-up of the Montgomery Division was selected to play Oakland for the state tournament berth. Gaithersburg has worked five wins in five tries against Post 41 (15-16) this summer.

The rest of the field includes Pasadena Post 277, host Frederick Post 11, Mount Airy Post 191, two-time defending champion Cecil County Post 15⁄135⁄194 and Chaney Enterprises.