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Post 295 goes two-and-out in Frederick

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2006

If the Gaithersburg Post 295 baseball team reaches the Maryland State American Legion tournament for the fifth consecutive time next summer, it should petition the powers-that-be to eliminate the extra two innings placed on state games.

While county teams play just seven innings during the regular season and the Montgomery County tournament, all state games are scheduled for nine innings. Those two more innings don’t seem like much but they’ve been just enough to cut Post 295’s recent appearances to a bare minimum.

A year ago, Gaithersburg had its chance for a state championship three-peat ended, 11-9, by Funkstown Post 211 (the eventual state champs), which exploded for five runs in the eighth inning.

The trend of late-inning collapses continued again this past weekend as Post 295 squandered a 6-3 lead by allowing six runs in the eighth inning of Friday’s 9-6 loss to Chaney Enterprises at Frederick’s McCurdy Field. It then fell, 2-1, to Mt. Airy Post 191 in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday morning to end the team’s season at 23-13.

‘‘It’s tough, especially when you lose two like that,” Post 295 pitcher⁄outfielder Matt O’Keefe said. ‘‘Losing in the bottom of the ninth, it’s tough.”

Saturday’s loss was probably exceptionally tough for O’Keefe, who was the pitcher of record in the fateful ninth inning. After getting back-to-back fly-ball outs to begin his second inning in relief, O’Keefe surrendered a base hit to Mt. Airy’s Steven Rice.

He then walked Robbie Mathias and Matt Greene to load the bases. Two pitches later, Ryan Murray lined a single into center field to bring home Rice for the 2-1 victory.

Murray’s base hit brought an end to an improbable late-season run by Post 295, which found itself in a heated race for one of the four spots in the county tournament until the second-to-last game of the regular season. Gaithersburg then swept all three of its opponents in the county tournament to claim a fourth straight county championship that concluded with a 10-9 win over Gaithersburg Post 104 (20-12).

‘‘I think our team did well considering we’re the youngest team up here,” Post 295 manager Rick Price said. ‘‘We competed. We did well. I think a lot of people have being saying we overachieved. Maybe we did.”

Gaithersburg looked poised to continue its string of success Friday against Charles County’s Chaney Enterprises, taking leads of 3-0 and 6-3 through 7 1⁄2 innings of play on the strength of a three-run home run by Mike Celenza (4 for 8 for the tournament) in the fourth and a two-run double by Joe Weaver in the seventh.

Post 295 had a chance to extend that lead in the top of the eighth inning, loading the bases on two hits and a walk, but Charlie Cononie flew out to end the threat.

Chaney came back with six runs in the bottom of the inning against relievers Cononie and Kyle Judson (1-2), who were plagued by two costly errors by Celenza on a potential double-play ball and catcher Eric Weller on what would have been the third out.

Post 295 struck first again against Mt. Airy Saturday. This time it was on a wild pitch in the third inning.

Left fielder Mike Ryan struck out with two out and one on but the pitch hit the plate and bounced near the Gaithersburg dugout, allowing Judson, who originally reached on an error, to score from second base for the 1-0 lead.

Post 295 ace pitcher Brett Fox, meanwhile, held Mt. Airy at bay through the first five innings. He allowed just one run with five strikeouts in seven innings of work.

That lone run came in the sixth inning as Mt. Airy loaded the bases on two hits and a walk and scored when Brian Paulhus worked a six-pitch walk for a 1-1 tie.

‘‘Walks will kill you,” Fox said. ‘‘That’s what I’ve always been told and that’s what happened today. I had two walks in one inning. It’s always fun to be in a game like that, a pitchers’ duel, but in the end, somebody’s got to lose, I guess.”