Baseball: Defensive Mistakes Lead to Cougar Loss

After snapping a six-game losing streak Friday night, the Oakton High baseball team stumbled against Madison High on Saturday for a 10-5 loss, their seventh in eight games.

The Cougars opened scoring in the second inning, starting with a bases loaded walk from senior left fielder Mason Hauser. Brian Burns, a junior right fielder, followed up with a two-run single. When Burns went to steal second base, the Warhawks catcher committed a throwing error, which allowed Hauser to score to put the Cougars at a 4-0 advantage.

The Warhawks answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the second, then added two runs in both the third and fourth innings to take a 9-4 lead heading into the fifth. Four of their nine runs were unearned.

With two walked batters on base in the fifth inning, senior Dennis Cooney knocked in the last Cougar run of the game. In the bottom of the inning, the Warhawks tacked on their last run of the game on another Cougar error to put the final score at 10-5.

"Defense has been our strength all year, and today we just didn't play good defense. There's really nothing else to say besides that," Coach Justin Janis said. "When you make that many errors, it's going to be tough to win. We just need to make the plays that we have been making all year."

On Saturday, the Cougars went through four pitchers who combined to throw two strikeouts and two walks, and gave up 13 hits.

"We've got to pitch better than we did, we've got to play better defense," Janis said. "Offensively, I thought we were solid today. Five runs should be able to keep you in a game in high school."

The Cougars ended a six-game losing streak Friday against Herndon, a streak that stretched back to the start of Concorde District play. The win came after a solid outing on the mound from junior Conor Flanagan, who gave up one run in six innings while the Cougar offense piled on nine runs.

"We needed last night to remember we are a good team. We can play solid baseball. Hopefully we'll take what we did last night with us when we get back into district games next week," Janis said. "We want to be playing our best baseball in May."

The Cougars (1-5 Concorde) will host Chantilly (4-2) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in a Concorde District matchup. Earlier this month, the Chargers defeated the Cougars 3-2.