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CommunityCalvert 13’s lose
Falter in final to Frederick
Friday, July 18, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GARY SMITH
A dejected Josh Smith and his Calvert teammates head back to the dugout.
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For the second time in three days, Calvert fell to the tournament’s top seed by a score of 11-1, as Frederick scored three runs in the fifth inning to run-rule the upstart Calvert squad.
‘‘They were just the better team, I guess,” said Calvert shortstop Matt Roller, who went 2 for 3 with a pair of singles. ‘‘Yesterday we played well, coming back from a 5-2 deficit, but today we just didn’t have it. We made more errors than we should have. We thought we had a chance to win, but just fell short.”
Ahead 8-1, Frederick scored three runs to ice the game in the fifth.
Two runs came in to score on a single by Jason Trott, and the final run of the game came across as Matt Reilly slid into home, narrowly beating the tag by Calvert catcher Adam Chandlee, to win the game.
Calvert’s season comes to a bittersweet end after the team upset Charles County in the semifinals before falling in the championship game. With the win, Frederick will now advance to the regional tournament in Washington Township, N.J., on Aug. 1.
‘‘We are feeling pretty confident about playing at the next stage,” said Frederick manager Jim Wigfield. ‘‘This team has a lot of depth, and sometimes it is frustrating trying to get 15 kids into the game. But let me tell you, we can put six subs out there, and this team is just as strong as when they started the game.”
Frederick jumped out to an early lead in the first inning with a leadoff single by Forrest Parker and an RBI triple by Brian Smith, who later scored on a fielding error. Third baseman Zack Woodward then drove in Austin Klingensmith on a double-play ball.
Calvert fell into the 3-0 hole after threatening in the top of the inning.
The team’s No. 2, 3 and 4 hitters each reached on singles, but Chandlee was gunned down at third on a perfect throw by right fielder Chance Smith, as the catcher tried to take two bases on a single by Paul Woodburn.
Calvert’s at-bat ended with two runners stranded on base.
Klingensmith struck out Brent Fowler to end the inning.
‘‘As far as the game goes, I think it really comes down to the first inning,” said Calvert manager Bill Hay. ‘‘We really let them off the hook, and if we could have put a couple on the board in the first, then it is a whole different ball game. But they are too good of a team to make mistakes against.”
After struggling in the first, Klingensmith was brilliant for the remaining four innings.
Frederick’s starting pitcher totaled 10 strikeouts — two-thirds of his team’s outs — with two in each inning.
‘‘I was getting the fastball over a lot with some good speed, and my curveball was really getting them,” an out-of-breath Klingensmith said after taking a victory lap around the field with his teammates. ‘‘It was just a great experience. I have never started and pitched like this in a game this big.”
With Klingensmith in cruise control, Frederick put Calvert away in the fourth inning.
After adding runs in the second and third, the top-seeded team posted three runs on RBIs by Brian Smith, Klingensmith, and Woodward, pushing the score to 8-0.
But despite trailing late in the game, Calvert responded. Pinch hitter Tyler Sullivan stepped to the plate and tagged a double deep to right field.
He later scored from third on an errant throw by Frederick catcher Tyler Kisner.
‘‘I was hoping that we could make a run, and that I would rally the team a little bit,” Sullivan said. ‘‘I just really focused on the ball. It was a little bit low, and I was able to pull it.”
But Klingensmith got out of the jam by striking out the final two batters he faced and Frederick cruised to the win.
Tuesday’s championship game was a rematch of last year’s state title showdown in the 12-year-old division, with Calvert besting Frederick to move on to the World Series.
