Baseball: Huskies Notch Easy Win Over St. Andrew's

Because of multiple rainouts, man spring sports teams have had to reconfigure their schedules. For the Flint Hill baseball team, it means playing five games in six days this week.

So far, so good.

The Huskies defeated St. Andrew's Espicopal 13-1 at home Tuesday, just a day after beating them 15-1 on the Lions' home turf, to improve their record to 12-3 and extend their win streak to five games.

Brian Lutz, a senior, pitched 11 strikeouts in four innings for the Huskies and gave up three hits.

Though Rick Armstrong's double to follow up Bhendari Moore's triple in the second inning brought in one run, the Huskies would not dominate offensively until the third, scoring 11 of their 13 runs that inning.

But Flint Hill's victory is owed less to dominant hitting than it is to inconsistent pitching. Of the 11 runs scored in the bottom of the third inning, only one was earned. And though Huskies stepped into the batter's box 16 times that inning, they got only four hits. Four batters were hit by pitches, six walked and one reached on an error.

Jared Knoll hit a double and a home run that inning to drive in five runs. Armstrong drove in two more that inning with a line drive single.

In the fourth inning, Jordan Davis hit a solo home run to plate the final run for the Huskies.

Despite the win, Tom Verbanic thinks the team should be playing better and would like to see more consistency from his players heading into today's game against Maret, a much tougher opponent than St. Andrew's. The winner of today's game will move into first place in the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference. Both teams are 5-1 in MAC play.

"I don't like our focus right now," Verbanic said. "We've got five games in six days and we started out great at 2-0 and a lot guys got to play. But we need to get in focus for Maret. They're solid and pitch well and we can't make mental mistakes."

Verbanic would love to have had some practice time to refocus his team, but with such a demanding game schedule this week, there simply isn't time.

"Tomorrow and next week we face the toughest teams in our district," he said. "Those games will really let us know where we stand in the district."

Tonight's game against Maret will be played at home at 4:15 p.m.