By Jimmy Thomas
Content Editor, DigitalSports.com
** Look below the story to find two separate video players filled with highlights from both Northern Region quarterfinal games held Monday at South County.
With a strong wind blowing the American flag toward right/center field and some of the areas best hitters on hand, runs were not hard to come by in the two Northern Region tournament quarterfinals held at South County Secondary School on Memorial Day. The four teams combined for 34 hits and 38 runs scored in what proved a 20-8 Lake Braddock win over Westfield and a 7-3 Oakton victory over Stone Bridge in the second half of the doubleheader.
The day’s first game featured the region’s hottest team, Lake Braddock, which had won 17 straight games, squaring off against Westfield, which boasts the Northern Region Player of the Year in Matt Snyder.
Snyder got the Bulldogs on the board in the top of the first inning with a towering, two-run blast over the right/center field wall after a Kevin Reardon walk.
But the Patriot District champion Bruins came to bat in the bottom half of the inning and immediately answered, posting a blistering nine runs on on five hits, highlighted by a grand slam from starting pitcher Shane Halley.
Lake Braddock chased Westfield starting pitcher Danny Thorpe after just 2/3 of an inning but were not done, pounding out a total of 17 hits in the victory. Senior Shannon Mark led Lake Braddock with four hits, an RBI and two runs scored on a day when every Bruin starter registered at least one hit.
After their huge first inning the Bruins came back with RBI singles from Ryan Lindemuth and Steven Lindemuth to put six more runs on the board and extend their lead to 15-2 after just two innings of play.
The Bulldogs rallied and scored five runs in the fifth — stringing five consecutive hits together at one point — but the Bruins’ lead was simply too large.
The second half of the quarterfinal doubleheader featured Oakton, the defending Northern Region champions, against Liberty District champion Stone Bridge.
The Bulldogs sent first team all-region pitcher Ty Weaver to the hill to face the Cougars’ Bart Reese, with the winner to face Lake Braddock on Wednesday in the semifinal round for the right to advance to the Virginia AAA tournament.
Stone Bridge took an early lead on a solo home run by senior Tyler Basso and an RBI single by freshman J.J. White in the second inning, but were baffled by Reese for most of the game and eventually fell to Oakton, 7-3.
Reese went 6 2/3 innings for the win before giving way to senior Bret Williams for the final out and the save. Williams also had two RBI on sacrifice fly balls and junior Adam Henne hit an opposite-field solo home run in the fourth. But it was senior shortstop Alfred Rodriguez who led the Cougars, going 3-for-4 at the plate and making a spectacular turn at second base after a feed from Henne for a 4-6-3 double play to end a Bulldog threat in the sixth.
“We came to play today,” Reese said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game coming in. They have a great record and they won their district. Every one of their players battled, one through nine.”
GAME 1
R H E
Lake Braddock 20 17 1
Westfield 8 11 3
GAME 2
R H E
Oakton 7 10 1
Stone Bridge 3 6 1
Processing your request, Please wait....
