High School Baseball: Owls down Lions in County Baseball Action

Behind pitcher Chad Diehl, Westminster handed Liberty its first county baseball loss Monday, 6-1.

Diehl led the Owls with his arm and his bat. He struck out seven Lions while allowing three hits and three walks. In the bottom of the first inning he supported his own cause with a double to left, driving in two runs.

He threw a lot of pitches in the first inning, but his coach Bryan Harman wasn’t concered.

"We keep a pitch count. He was up in the 90s last week. He pretty much throws on a weekly basis. So we try to keep him right around 90. I think he was in the low 80s today. What was happening early, he was getting behind. That was what was taking his pitch count up. We played great defense today behind him," said Harman.

The Owls are 3-0 in the county and 5-0 overall. The loss was the first in the county for the Lions, who are 2-1 and 3-2 overall.

Andrew Massey started the game on the mound for the visiting Lions. In four innings, he whiffed four Owls, allowed seven hits and walked none.

Mike Bruce threw the last two innings for the Lions. He allowed two hits, but no walks or strikeouts.

"We are settling in on where we want to be with the lineup and everything. But we didn’t execute in some situations defensively, we didn’t hustle at times today, we didn’t play our style of baseball. I am not making excuses—they played great—but we didn’t play the way we expect to play and that will be addressed," said Lion coach Erik Barnes.

Liberty scored their lone run in the fifth, as Sean Naylor led off with a single. Todd Fletcher followed with a walk, but was eliminated as Jordan Reynolds hit into a double play.

Naylor took third on the play and scored on a single to left by Max Graumann.

The other Lion hit in the game was a double by Greg Wheatley.

"We knew we had our hands full. The Massey kid is a top pitcher here in the county. We knew we had our work cut out for us today and our kids were up for the challenge today," said Harman.

Collecting the other eight hits for the winners were Cody Harman, Deven Boone, Brandon Taylor, Ryan Robinson, Mitch McVerry and Brandon Nelson. Eric Deitz had two hits and drove in two runs. Harman also had two RBI.

Deitz, Boone and Diehl had doubles in the game.

"We try play hard on every pitch, every play and work to get better every day, and I think we took a step back today. There were opportunities for us to make plays, hustle on the field—we didn’t do those things. So we will have to get back to work," said Barnes.

After a cold and wet week, the teams finally had a warm, dry day. "It’s a beautiful day today. A little breezy," said Harman.