Indian Head blanks St. Mary’s
Conden dominates his former team
Much of the anticipated drama surrounding Sunday afternoon’s Coors Charles-St. Mary’s County Baseball League contest between visiting Indian Head, formerly known as Bumpy Oak, and host St. Mary’s evaporated in the top of the first inning.
Indian Head (5-1 overall) scored five unearned runs in the inning against St. Mary’s hurler Ryan D’Antuono and the visitors never looked back en route to a 10-0 victory in eight innings at St. Mary’s College of Mar yland.
Indian Head got eight stellar innings from right-handed pitcher Greg Conden, who blanked his former team on just three hits and one walk.
“It all started with Greg,” said Indian Head assistant coach Jamie Wright, filling in for an idle Darren Sanders on Sunday. “He was terrific. He got ahead of the hitters, he got a number of ground ball outs and he fielded his position well today. Our fielders made all the plays.”
While Indian Head was virtually flawless from start to finish behind Conden, who helped trigger an inning-ending double play in the fifth, St. Mary’s (3-3) was virtually doomed from the outset. After scoring the five unearned runs in the top of the first, Indian Head added two more unearned runs in the seventh and the hosts never recovered and never generated any offense against Conden.
“Greg had been doing that for us for years,” St. Mary’s head coach Drew Willard said. “Today, he went out there and threw strikes and he fielded his position well, which was never what he was known for. We only got three hits against him. You can’t make mistakes and giving them one or two runs would have been difficult
enough to overcome.”
Indian Head leadoff batter Derek Taitano reached on an error to start the game and Brandon Remalia drew a one-out walk. After both runners stole one base, Simon Klink was intentionally walked with two outs to load the bases. Indian Head’s Sam Wright beat out an infield single to plate Taitano, B.J. Kittle walked to force in another run and Clint Sanders belted a three-double run to extend the lead to 5-0.
“That was the dagger,” Willard said of Sanders’ two-run, bases-clearing double in the first. “We could have gotten out of the inning down one run or two and still had a chance. But being down 5-0 was big.”
Indian Head got two runs in the top of the fourth to extend the lead to 7-0. Kittle led off the inning with a single, Sanders walked on four pitches, then David Michael was able to sacrifice bunt both runners over. Taitano then plated Andrew Wright, Kittle’s courtesy runner, on a groundout to second and Charlie Wright drove in Sanders
with a single to left field.
“All of the boys had a chance to play today and they all contributed,” said Jamie Wright, whose sons Charlie Wright, Sam Wright and Andrew Wright all played on Sunday.
Indian Head added two more unearned runs against St. Mary’s reliever Hunter Draheim in the seventh. Charlie Wright led off the inning with a single to left, Jeremy Remalia reached on a one-out error, then Klink drove home Charlie Wright with a double and Sam Wright plated Remalia with a sacrifice fly to center.
Indian Head ended the game one inning
early by pushing across a clean run in the top of the eighth. Taitano worked Draheim for a two-out walk, then scored when Charlie Wright doubled into the left-field corner.
Needing a run to prolong the game, Willard greeted Conden with a one-out double and Ben Goldsmith walked. But Conden retired the last two batters to preserve the shutout and concluded the
contest one inning early.
“We played three games this week and some of our guys made plans expecting weather to be a factor,” Willard said. “But I still expect us to be among the top two or three teams in the league this year. I know we’re not going to go 20-4 like we did last year, but we should still be right up there.”