Last Friday afternoon when the La Plata High School baseball team quickly erased a 1-0 deficit en route to forging a 7-1 victory over Leonadtown High, Warriors’ leadoff batter Taylor Ellis found himself playing a role contrary to his normal fare.
La Plata (13-2) spotted Leonardtown a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Warriors’ starter Camden Cooke escaped serious trouble to limit the visiting Raiders to a single run. Leonardtown’s Owen Hugel had led off the game with a bloop single to right and later scored on a ground out by Daniel Knott, but that would be the only run the Raiders would manage on the day.
In fact, Leonardtown’s 1-0 lead was essentially long forgotten moments later. Ellis was hit by a pitch to start the home half of the frame for the Warriors and later scored on a single by Chris Coombs. Ellis would then find himself in a different role offensively in the bottom of the fourth when the hosts finally broke the game open.
Adam Bowling, who had earlier walked and scored and singled and scored, doubled to lead off the frame then Evan Adams reached on an error and Ben Wilson was hit by a pitch. Ellis, who is typically responsible for setting the table for the subsequent batters in the order, stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs and promptly delivered a two-run single to right center.
“I usually go up there looking to take some pitches and try to get on whatever way I can,” Ellis said. “But in that at-bat I was a little too patient and took the first two pitches [for strikes] right down the middle. But the next pitch was out and up a little and I was able to drive it into the outfield for a hit.”
Staked to a 7-1 lead through four complete, Cooke was on the verge of earning the win. But the first two batters in the top of the fifth reached, Hugel on an error and Owen Taitano on a bloop single to right.
La Plata coach John Childers then hooked Cooke in favor of left-handed pitcher Thomas Conrad and the Warriors’ southpaw escaped any harm by retiring the next three Raiders in order and held them scoreless in three complete innings.
“Camden has been really good for us all season and Thomas has yet to allow an earned run in 18 innings this year,” Childers said. “But we managed to avoid the big inning when they got the first two batters on base in the first. To hold them to just one run was big for us. Then out bats came alive in the fourth and that was the crucial point of the game.”
Leonardtown (6-6) opened the season by winning four of its first five games before dropping four of its next five games and last Friday the Raiders again found themselves right at the .500 mark following the setback to La Plata. Leonardtown second-year coach Austin Guy is optimistic his players can regain their earlier winning ways heading into the postseason.
“We’ve been on a little bit of a roller coaster ride this season,” Guy said. “We started out fast, then we went into a little slump. We had the chance to come away with more runs in the first inning and only got one. Then we had trouble generating any more offense from there.”
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