Photo Gallery; In-Game Thread
In the first WCAC baseball semifinal, the Good Counsel Falcons took on the Paul VI Panthers on Shipley Field at the University of Maryland. The Panthers scored the first four runs of the game, but playing their fifth game in six days finally took its toll, and Good Counsel's big hitters and solid pitching proved to be too much to handle, as the Falcons won handedly, 11-4.
"I always feel like with our bats we always have a chance to win, no matter what," said Good Counsel head coach John McGowan. "When we dropped those first four runs, I knew it was going to take more than four runs to beat us. I told the kids that it's a good thing because now you can swing the bats and be aggressive and you don't have to worry about being patient."
The Falcons needed every one of those big bats following the first at-bat for Paul VI. With two outs in the top of the 1st, with Matt Kianka on third and Tyler Costello on first, Robbie Kidd singled to left to score Kianka, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead. The very next batter, Joe Cassell hit a blooper to right field that dropped down right in front of Good Counsel's diving right fielder, scoring Costello and Kidd, extending the Panthers' lead to 3-0. The very next batter, Tyler Alger, hit a blooper to almost the exact same spot in right field, scoring Cassell, which proved to be the Panthers last run of the game.
The Falcons came right back in the bottom of the first scoring two runs of their own. After leadoff man, George Smith Jr. walked and AJ Bowman's long fly-ball dropped down as well, Good Counsel had two men on with no one out. Following a groundout by Good Counsel's Jake Taylor, which advanced the runners to second and third, Brandon Grove stepped up for the Falcons and knocked in a two-run single up the middle, scoring Smith and Bowman, cutting the Panthers lead to two, 4-2.
After the tough start by Good Counsel's starter Kevin Doherty, sophomore pitcher Collin McGowan stepped up for the Falcons, serving up four shutout innings and giving the big bats of Good Counsel more than enough opportunities to get McGowan the win.
"Collin is real steady," said McGowan. "He just tries to keep the ball moving around, tries to keep himself from getting hurt, and I was real confident pitching wise that we were going to get through it."
In the bottom of the second with two outs and the top of the batting order coming up, Smith hit a two-out double to the left center gap to get the rally going. Then on the very next pitch, Bowman hits another two-out double to left center, scoring Smith to make the score, 4-3 PVI. On the ensuing pitch Jake Taylor brought the house down. The big right hander stepped in the batter's box and demolished a ball over the left field wall at Shipley Field and onto the neighboring building. Taylor's shot would give the Falcons the lead for good, but the Falcons were not done yet. After Brandon Grove singled following Taylor's massive shot, the Falcons would put in pinch runner, Brian Alexa, who would score from third on a groundout by Kevin Stein, giving Good Counsel a 6-4 lead.
Said Taylor on how his homerun felt to him, "It was amazing. As soon as I hit that homerun, I got chills down my body. It was really nice, and we just rode that momentum through the rest of the game."
The Falcons would add another run in the third off a great double hit by Nick Trotta, scoring Kyle Porter, but the Panthers would hold the Falcons off until the bottom of the sixth, where many mistakes by the Panthers and more extra base hits turned into four more runs by the Falcons, eventually ending with the final score of 11-4.
Both coaches were very admiring of their opponents coaching staffs and teams, and especially coach Emerson for Paul VI, who acknowledged the great bats on Good Counsel.
"They can swing their way out of trouble," said Paul VI head coach Billy Emerson. "Their starter did a great job of holding us down, and I'm just proud of my team after all we've been through this week, playing in our fifth game in six days. I'm just proud of them coming out with some energy and giving it a run. "
Coach Emerson was obviously disappointed after the loss, but you cannot completely blame his kids for coming up short after traveling over 400 miles the past few days and arriving home late after the Virginia State semi-final game got suspended. Said Emerson, "It's just not fair to the kids. We were not at our best, and that's not taking anything away from Good Counsel. They're great. They beat us twice this year, and may win the whole thing, but that is not us at our best."
Hopefully not just the WCAC, but the IAC and MAC as well look into making their post-season tournaments around different times from the various state tournaments that other teams play in every year.
Good Counsel will now take on DeMatha Monday night at Maryland (weather permitting).
