Coleman And Adams Career Day Lifts Prince George's Baseball Past CCBC Essex, 6-2

BALTIMORE, Md. – Michael Hovermill, Jr. (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Spackenkill) pitched six strong innings while Austin Adams (Fayetteville, Ga./Whitewater) and Dwayne Coleman (Lothian, Md./Southern) each had four hits and two RBIs to lift Prince George's Community College past CCBC Essex 6-2 in Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference (MD JUCO) baseball action on Tuesday.

Coming off a complete-game gem against Anne Arundel Community College on March 28 to earn the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division III Pitcher of the Week, Hovermill back up that performance against the Riverhawks with six innings on Tuesday and allowed one unearned run on six hits with two walks and one strikeout. The freshman has allowed two runs (one earned) on 10 hits with 12 strikeouts and three walks in his last 15.0 innings.

Adams reached on three infield singles and a base hit to center on the afternoon. Adams got the scoring started with an RBI single to center in a four-run third and also scored in the frame before adding a run-scoring single in the eighth to answer for the Owls (18-8-1, 4-7-1 MD JUCO) after the Knights (9-17, 4-9 MD JUCO) got a run in the seventh. Adams registered his sixth multi-hit game of the year, including his second four-hit performance after posting four hits against UVAA on Feb. 18.

Coleman singled in three of his first four at-bats that included an RBI fielder's choice to cap the four-run third before adding an insurance run on a run-scoring triple to right center in the top of the ninth for a 6-2 lead.  It was Coleman's first four-hit performance of the season and seventh multi-hit performance of the season.

Bay To (Philadelphia, Pa./Neumann) added three hits, an RBI and a run scored for Prince George's while Dakota McFadden (Largo, Md./Heide Trask [N.C.]) registered a hit, two runs scored and an RBI, and James Wilcox III (Sterling, Va./Dominion) pitched two shutout innings to earn the save in the winning effort.

Mitch Fyffe powered CCBC Essex with two hits and two RBIs while Corey Lewis added three hits and a run scored in the loss.

The Knights started a five-game winless streak for the Owls with an 8-4 win on March 7, but since ending that winless streak Prince George's has won eight of its last 11 games and took the lead on Tuesday and never looked back to earn the season split with CCBC Essex.

After threatening in the first two innings, the Owls got on the scoreboard in the third with four runs. Brandon Crosby (Richmond, Va./Atlee, Mechanicsville) led off with a double, moved to third on a wild pitch and touched home on Adams RBI single to center field. Adams then stole second and came around to score on To's double to right field. After To stole third, McFadden drilled an opposite field run-scoring single to plate To with the third run. Harold Marte (Largo, Md./Battlefield [Va.]) put runners on the corners with a single to right before Coleman gave Prince George's a 4-0 lead with an RBI fielder's choice to shortstop.

The Knights put a run on the board in the third. Aided by an error, Fyffe hit a sacrifice fly to score an unearned run and cut the margin to 4-1. In the seventh, CCBC Essex cut the deficit in half with an RBI single by Fyffe.

Thanks to Adams second RBI of the day, the Owls answered with a run in the eighth to restore a three-run lead. Kilian Bloat (Liberty, N.Y./Liberty) was hit with the pitched, moved to second on a groundout and to third on a throwing error on a fly out before Adams reached on an infield single to score Bloat for a 5-2 advantage.

In the ninth, McFadden reached on an error and then chugged around the bases on Coleman's triple to right center to set the final score at 6-2. Wilcox allowed a hit in two innings of work, but recorded the final six out to register the save.

Prince George's entered the NJCAA Division III National Rankings last week in the No. 9 spot. Despite only falling last week 10-8 to Division I Harford, who enters the Division I poll this week at No. 19, the Owls dropped out of the Top 10 and into the category of receiving votes with two points.

Prince George's starts a three-team, four-game homestand on Thursday against CCBC Dundalk. Game time is 3:30 p.m.

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