St. Mary's City, Md. – For the third time this season, the St. Mary's College of Maryland baseball team has handed University of Mary Washington a loss as the third-seeded Seahawks (19-14) posted a convincing 8-2 victory over No. 4 seed Mary Washington (21-13) in the first round of the Capital Athletic Conference Baseball Championship Tournament Thursday afternoon.
Today's win sends St. Mary's to face second-seeded Frostburg State University (19-10) tomorrow in second round action at 3:30 pm. Frostburg State was a 5-3 winner over No. 5 seed Wesley College in today's other first round play.
Sophomore RHP Devon Jerrard (Hunt Valley, Md./Boys' Latin) registered his second win against Mary Washington as Jerrard (5-2) allowed two runs on six hits with two strikeouts and two walks over 5.1 innings before giving way to junior RHP Michael Victory (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy). Victory notched his first career save as he scattered three hits in 3.2 innings.
Seniors Brad Shepherd (Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills) and Ian Simpson-Shelton (Upper Marlboro, Md./DeMatha), junior Keith Johnson (Great Mills, Md./Great Mills), and sophomore Corey Napier (Leonardtown, Md./St. Mary's Ryken) each connected on two hits to lead the Seahawk offense at the plate.
Shepherd and senior Joey Kavanagh (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) both drove in two runs while Shepherd and Johnson scored two runs apiece.
Shepherd sparked a three-run second inning as he cracked a triple almost 380 feet to left center to score the inning's lead-off hitter, Johnson, and the No. 7 hitter, Simpson-Shelton. Johnson collected a lead-off double while Simpson-Shelton reached on a fielder's choice. Shepherd then came home on senior Bobby Corton's (Owings Mills, Md./Calvert Hall) two-out single down the right field line. Senior RHP Eric Rehbein (Alexandria, Va.) pitched a fly out to senior Matt Baden (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) to end the inning.
The Seahawks increased their lead to 4-0 in the third behind Kavanagh's RBI double to left center, bringing home Napier who had singled up the middle.
Mary Washington finally broke through in the fifth as junior Santino Rosanova (Laurel, Md.) crossed home plate on a balk by Jerrard.
The Eagles picked up their second run in the sixth following sophomore Seth Jordan's (Springfield, Va.) sacrifice fly to right field, allowing senior Jackson Clement (Fairfax, Va.) to score after reaching on a fielder's choice. With runners on first and second, Victory got junior Jeff Zeisler (Norfolk, Va.) to pop up for the last out. St. Mary's responded with two runs of its own in the sixth as well as the Seahawks then capitalized on a fielding error by Clement.
SMCM tacked on additional runs in the eighth and ninth innings for the 8-2 final as Kavanagh tallied a sac fly to left field to score senior Mark Dattilio (Hagerstown, Md./North Hagerstown), who reached on a single, in the eighth while Baden hit a single through the right side to bring home Shepherd after reaching on a single to left center.