Baseball: Cougars Make Comeback to Defeat Chantilly, Advance to Concorde District Finals

If the Cougars proved anything in the regular season, it's that falling behind doesn't scare them. They have gradually improved their hitting on two strikes and don't get flustered when they have two outs against them. Players will start a game with multiple errors, then turn their luck around to become the hero of the game.

The story was no different Friday night when the Cougars came back from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Chantilly Chargers 6-4 to advance to the Concorde District championship game Monday night.

"After the first half of the first inning were just like, 'Let's hold them and chip our way back into it.'" said Justin Janis, Oakton's head coach. "You don't need to get it all back right away."

The game started rough for the Cougars. Shortstop Chad Carroll fumbled a routine ground ball, allowing the first batter of the game to reach first base. Though Carroll recovered to throw out the next batter, starting pitcher Walker Webster and the Cougars began to struggle.

Webster hit Chantilly's Ben Langford and Kevin Johnston back-to-back to load the bases and gave up a line drive single to Sam Zimmerman, which scored the first run. Webster seemingly recovered when Brian Morrow popped out to first base. He pitched a strikeout to Brian Morrow, but an uncaught strike three from catcher Austin Lamon allowed the batter to reach first and the runner on third to reach home for the Chargers' second run. Webster then walked in a run and gave up another line drive single to bring the score to 4-0.

Janis relieved Webster with Taiyo Francis who threw two pitches to end the inning with a popout. He finished the game for the Cougars, giving up six hits and striking out two, and allowed no runs.

"My coaches just told me to keep it zero every inning I pitched, so I did my best to keep runners off base and hold it to the four runs I put up there," Francis said. "That's all I could really do."

Though Francis pitched just two strikeouts — the first of which did not come until the fifth inning — he threw just 63 pitches in 6 1/3 innings, getting nine of his outs with groundouts.

"Part of my pitching is I know I'm not overpowering my fastball or anything. I'm not like a Stephen Strasburg or anything," he said. "I'm just trying to get people to put the ball in play and I'm going to trust my defense to make plays."

Janis said he could not have asked more from Francis.

"That's exactly what you want from a relief pitcher," Janis said. "Whatever their score is, you want it to stay there. He was just awesome tonight. I'm so proud of him. He was outstanding tonight."

But it wasn't just strong pitching that brought the Cougars back in the game. They made up for their four-run deficit by slowly chipping away at it. They scored two runs in the bottom of the first: Chad Carroll stole home, catching the Chantilly battery off guard, and two pitches later Mason Hauser hit a single to right field to score Chris Hanson.

The Cougars notched another run in the second when Luke Willis, with two strikes against him, hit a line drive single to score Carroll, who had walked to get on base with two outs.

Oakton would not score again until the fifth inning, where they tied the game after Chantilly pitcher Will Bashaw tried to pick off Hanson at second base. The shortstop, Jamie Danehower, dropped the ball on a collision with Hanson, and Luke Willis took the opportunity to cross home plate.

The tiebreaker came in the sixth. Ty Carroll launched the first pitch in his at-bat over the right field wall for a solo homer and the game-winning run. The Cougars scored one more in the sixth inning, and the final run of the game, after a passed ball.

After seeing his team battle through tough situations, Janis thinks his team is capable of winning the Concorde title.

"We'll see who wins [the other semifinal game] tonight, then practice tomorrow with them in mind," Janis said. "I think we're ready."

Oakton will play Westfield, who defeated Robinson 4-3 on Friday, at Chantilly High School.

Oakton stats:

Hits: Luke Willis (three singles), Chad Carroll (two singles), Joey Bartosic (two singles), Ty Carroll (home run), Chris Hanson (single), Mason Hauser (single)
RBI: Hauser (1), Willis (1), T. Carroll (1)

*This article has been corrected to show the pickoff attempt that resulted in a Cougar run in the fifth inning was dropped by shortstop Jamie Danehower after colliding with base runner Chris Hanson.