Baseball: Cougars' Streak Ends with First District Loss

For the second night in a row, the Cougar baseball team found itself in a tight game. But instead of errors and offense dictating the game as it did in against Centreville, it was pitching that set the pace in the 5-1 loss against Robinson.

Friday's pitchers' duel pitted Oakton's R.J. Garcia against Robinson's Connor Graber. The game was scoreless until the fifth inning when Rams left fielder Michael Kann hit a home run, which also brought in Graber who had singled before him. Those two hits came after Garcia, who struck out four batters, gave up just two others in the first four innings. He would give up one more in the sixth before head coach Justin Janis would bring in reliever Walker Webster.

"R.J. really threw the ball well for us," Janis said. "It was really just that he pitched one ball up to a batter, and unfortunately the guy put a good swing on it."

A sacrifice fly in the sixth, and an RBI single and a walk with bases loaded would score the Rams' last three runs.

Graber struck out six and gave up three hits in five innings for the Rams.

Chris Hanson, a senior and co-captain, tried to start a rally in the sixth with a leadoff home run, but his would be the last run for the Cougars despite loading the bases that same inning.

Hanson went 2 for 2, hitting a triple in addition to his solo shot. He also walked twice, putting himself on base all four times he stood in the batter's box. Mitch Carroll, a sophomore, had a similar offensive game, reaching on a hit, a walk and an error in his three plate appearances.

But as a whole, the Cougars struggled offensively, notching only five hits in the game and failing to score any of their six runners in scoring position.

The loss is the Cougars' first in Concorde District play.

"We know there are no easy games in this district, and we talked about that before the game. We need to be ready to play, and I thought we were. It came down to us not being able to get things going offensively," Janis said. "It stinks, but I don't think we expected to go undefeated in the district.

With Fairfax County Public Schools on spring break next week, the Cougars will put district competition on hold while they travel down to South Carolina for the Hanahan Invitational Tournament in Charleston. H.I.T. features 30 teams from across the country — including Westfield and James Madison high schools — for five days of baseball.

"The best thing about it is we're going to be playing every day. Hopefully we'll get to mix things up and get some new guys in to play and try a couple things," Janis said. "I hope we'll find some guys who can help us win some games when we come back."

The Cougars will first face West Ashley (S.C.) High School at 8:30 p.m. Monday.

Cougar statistics:

Hits: Chris Hanson (home run, triple), Mitch Carroll (single), Austin Lamon (single), Conor Flanagan (single)
RBI: Chris Hanson (1)