Blair Baseball demolishes RM

Blair Varsity baseball thoroughly defeated the Richard Montgomery Rockets Thursday night in a 11-1 blowout. The mercy rule was applied in the sixth inning, after Blair acquired a ten-run lead. The Blazers improved to an 8-3 season record with the win.

On an unseasonably brisk and breezy night, the Montgomery Blair Blazers took Richard Montgomery for a ride. But the game didn't start off on the best foot. With one out and runners on second and third in the first inning, a fly ball was hit into the outfield. Both runners attempted take the next base, however the runner leaving second left the base too early, allowing Blair to throw the ball to second for the third out. Richard Montgomery wouldn't get to that level of momentum for the rest of the game.

Blair began its offensive push in the bottom of the first inning. Center Fielder Jorge Noda reached base on a grounder and John Ramsey took first with a walk. After performing a double steal, a botched grounder by the second baseman brought both Blazers home to give Blair a 2-0 lead.

As the offense was gaining momentum, starting pitcher Bobby Pfefferle settled in and dominated. He pitched five innings and gave up only one run. "Bobby was a bit inconsistent in the beginning of the game," Blair Coach Eric Zolkiewicz said, "But he got it going and when he gets it going he's hard to hit." Blair Captain Max Salzman agreed. "Bobby did a really great job today at controlling their bats."

In the bottom of the third inning, Blair added two more runs for a score of 4-1. Junior Ian Donaldson hit double into center field. A balk brought Donaldson to third, and Pfefferle sacrifice flied him home. Later in the inning, Noda was driven home by a deep triple off the bat of second baseman Ian Kiefhaber.

An miraculous web-gem diving catch and double play by Noda ended the top of the fourth inning. "I think that catch is what really got us started offensively. After that, we came out and jumped on them," said Salzman. After tacking on two more runs in the fourth, the Blair bats really came out in the fifth. With a new and weaker pitcher and defensive play that resembled the Washington Generals, Blair managed to score four runs for a total of ten. A dribbling grounder and a defensive miscue brought Pfefferle and Kiefhaber home, and a botched grounder brought in catcher Aaron Clingman. A groundout off the bat of Donaldson brought in one more run.

After solid pitching from Junior Noah Buchholz in the top of the sixth, the mercy rule was finally invoked after Junior Joe Maher hit home Senior Peter Berger on a single to shallow right field, improving Blair's lead to 11-1. After the game, Zolkiewicz attributed a number of factors to Blair's win. "RM gave us a couple gifts. It wasn't our strongest offensive outing but we were aggressive on the basepaths and our bats eventually got going."