Baseball: Potomac Falls Keeps District Title Hopes Alive with Comeback Against Briar Woods

(May 19, 2011) - The Potomac Falls and Briar Woods baseball teams engaged in a battle of will power last night at Freedom High School with the Panthers coming out on top, 9-4, after a five hour marathon.

With the game being moved to Freedom because of the field conditions at Briar Woods, the track conditions at best could be described as muddy. Freedom Coach Jason Treon and his players worked on the field right up to 6 p.m. in order to get the final Dulles District game in for each team. The Panthers (14-2 in district) needed the win to keep hope alive of tying Broad Run (14-1) for the regular-season title and forcing a playoff for the district's top seed.


However, with the teams on the field, no umpires were present. Finally around 7 p.m. the first umpire showed up and the game was started.

The Falcons started freshman Charlie Fletcher and the Panthers countered with Stephen Fisher.

Both pitchers cruised through the first and the main concern was trying to keep the baseballs dry. The Panthers took the lead in the second inning when Michael Lascomb reached on an error and was moved to second on Colin Deely’s sacrifice bunt.

Lascomb was then knocked in on Sam Bass’ double to right field but not before Lascomb took a nasty fall rounding third base.

Briar Woods took the lead in the fourth inning when Victor Rizzardi and Thomas Lechler both drew walks. Matt Irish knocked in Rizzardi with a single to right and Cam Serigne followed with another RBI single and the Falcons were up 2-1.

Fletcher ran into trouble in the sixth when Jackson Rogers led off with a bunt single. Ryan Miller followed with a single and Lascomb was intentionally walked to load the bases. Deely and Fisher then drew consecutive walks to put PFalls up 3-2.

Cam Serigne was then brought in as relief for Fletcher and was greeted on the first pitch by Sam Bass’ second double of the night to rightfield scoring two more Panthers. Tyler Caldwell then laid down a sacrifice bunt to plate Fisher and give the Panthers a 6-2 lead.

At this point lightning was spotted and the field was cleared with the players going to the gym.

After about an hour of a terrific lightning show in the sky and brief showers, Treon and his men resumed there work on the field and at 10:15 p.m. the game resumed. With Sam Bass at third base, Ben Sweger sacrificed Bass home and the score was 8-2.

Jackson Rogers came into pitch for the Panthers and struck out the side in the sixth. Potomac Falls added another run in the seventh on a double by Lascomb and an RBI fielder’s choice by Nick Fernandez.

With the clock getting close to 11:00, the Falcons did not go quietly in the seventh. Ryan Jackson drew a walk, Matt Scott singled and Herald was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Michael Lord then hit a double to center to score two and make it a 9-4 game. Lechler followed with a walk before Irish flew out to left field to end the marathon just after 11:10 pm.

With the win, the Panthers ended the regular season at 17-3 with a District record of 14-2 and must wait for the outcome of the Broad Run – Dominion game to see whether they have a chance of tying Broad Run for the District title.