Eighth-Ranked Prince George's Baseball Hosts A Pair Of Doubleheaders This Weekend; Catch And Tip Day And Key Matchup With Westmoreland On Saturday

opening pitch… Prince George's baseball returns to the Prince George's Baseball Field for a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. The Owls will host Westmoreland County in a key Region XX matchup before closing out the home regular season schedule against Garrett on Sunday. Both twinbills start at 12 p.m.

catch and tip game… Prince George's athletic department invites fans to Saturday's doubleheader against Westmoreland to Catch A Chick-fila sandwich and Tip Your Cap in honor of William "Bumps" Vaughan. The first 100 fans in attendance will receive a free chick-fil-a sandwich and an Owls hat that has the No. 44 along with Bumps Vaughan's name on the side of it. The day is set to honor the legacy of Vaughan, a Prince George's baseball coach legend. He coached the Owls for 20 seasons from 1986-2005 and passed away at the age of 90 on Feb. 25, 2017.

WESTMORELAND GAME DAY INFORMATION
Westmoreland (9-15) at No. 8 Prince George's (23-10-1)
Sat, April 29, 2017, 12 p.m.
Prince George's Baseball Field | Largo, Md.

GAME ONE LIVE STATS | GAME TWO LIVE STATS

PRINCE GEORGE'S: ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
WESTMORELAND: ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS

the series… Prince George's is 13-3 against Westmoreland County since the start of the 2013 season after the two teams have meet twice in the regular season and twice in the NJCAA Division III Region XX Tournament in that span each year. The Owls are 6-2 in the regular season and 7-1 in the postseason against the Wolfpack in that stretch. 

the word on the wolfpack… Westmoreland County, who battled St. Vincent JV on Thursday, came into that game 9-15 after defeating Butler County 11-1 on Tuesday.  Garrett Stevenson leads the team with a .385 batting average with 25 hits, 16 runs scored, five doubles, three triples and 10 RBIs. Branson Auckerman is second on the squad with a .360 batting average with 18 hits, five runs scored, three doubles, a homer and 11 RBIs while Brett Vallorani is hitting .352 with 25 hits, 13 runs scored, four doubles and seven RBIs. T.J. Lux has tossed a team-best 30.1 innings with a 3-0 record and 19 strikeouts.

GARRETT GAME DAY INFORMATION
Garrett (19-24, 5-10 MD JUCO) at No. 8 Prince George's (23-10-1, 9-9-1)
Sun, April 30, 2017, 12 p.m.
Prince George's Baseball Field | Largo, Md.

GAME ONE LIVE STATS | GAME TWO LIVE STATS

PRINCE GEORGE'S: ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
GARRETT: ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS

the series… The series between Prince George's and Garrett is tied at 3-all in the last three years. Each team has swept the two-game set on the road in the last two campaigns while splitting the season series in 2014.

the word on the lakers… Garrett, who travels to the College of Southern Maryland on Saturday, come into the weekend 19-24 overall and 5-10 in league play after splitting a doubleheader with Frederick on Thursday. Tyler Dobie leads the team with a .359 batting average with 14 hits, seven runs scored, two doubles, a homer and 13 RBIs. Zarek Simkovich is hitting .347 with 35 hits, 18 runs scored, four doubles, two homers and 13 RBIs while Cody Hammond is batting .325 with 38 hits, 25 runs scored, six doubles, a triple and nine RBIs. Jordan Beans fuels the squad with 45.0 innings pitched, a 2-3 record, two saves, 48 strikeouts and a 4.00 ERA.

last time out… Eighth-ranked Prince George's Community College falls to CCBC Catonsville 14-8 on Thursday. Brandon Crosby paced the Owls with three hits and three runs scored. Dakota McFadden added two hits including a two-run homerun while Bay To tallied a two-run homer to post a round tripper in his third-straight game in the loss.

next on tap… Prince George's closes out the regular season with five games on the road, traveling to the College of Southern Maryland for a doubleheader on Tuesday, a nine-inning affair at Cecil on Thursday and a doubleheader at Chesapeake to close out the regular season on May 6. The Owls will return home when they host the NJCAA Division III Region XX Tournament on May 12-14.

nationally ranked… Prince George's moved up to the No. 8 spot in the NJCAA Division III Baseball Rankings, announced on Tuesday. The Owls have been ranked in three out of the last four polls after entering the poll in the No. 9 spot for Apr. 4 and also being ranked ninth for the Apr. 18 poll while the squad was in the receiving votes category for the Apr. 11 poll. Prince George's jumped up one spot in the poll after defeating Anne Arundel 10-5 on Thursday and then splitting a doubleheader with Allegany College of Maryland on Sunday after falling 4-3 loss in the opener before taking a 17-2 victory in the nightcap. The Owls received a season-high 20 points to rank eighth with a 2-1 week against Division II opponents after sitting in the ninth spot for polls released on Apr. 4 and Apr. 18. Cumberland County was the unanimous top choice in the poll after receiving all seven first-place votes and 70 points, nine points ahead of Rowan Gloucester's 61 points for second place while St. Cloud Tech (54 points), Niagara County (45 points), Northampton (42 points), Tyler (36 points), Century (25 points), Prince George's (20 points), Brookhaven (14 points) and Onondaga (8 points) rounded out the 10-team poll.

milestone numbers… Prince George's has won 20 games for the first time under head coach Buddy Foster. The Owls reached the milestone with a 3-2 win against No. 17 Frederick on Apr. 15. Foster is now just five wins shy of 100 wins for his career.

theft master… With three steals against Allegany of Maryland on Apr. 23, freshman Brandon Crosby became the first Prince George's player in the last five years to swipe 30 bases in a season and now has 34 stolen bases on the year. Crosby became just the third player in the last five years on the squad to have 20 thefts, joining Roland Eusesio (26, 2016) and Abdiel Marcano (29, 2014 and 20, 2013) as the only players with 20 steals in that stretch. Freshman Bay To can become the fourth player in that span with 20 steals with two swipes after currently sitting at 19 steals on the year.

in the last five years… Along with Brandon Crosby being the first Prince George's player in the last five years with 30 steals, Crosby is the second player to score 50 runs in a season and the fifth player with 50 hits in a season during that stretch. Crosby currently sits at 54 runs to post the most runs scored in the last five years for the team while he needs six hits to go past Roland Euseio (65, 2016) in base hits in the last five years. Dakota McFadden has posted 17 doubles this season to notch the most doubles in the last five years while his 43 RBIs stands seven behind Jeremy Hagstrom's (50) total from last year. Harold Marte's seven homers are the most for the team in the last five years while Michael Hovermill is the third pitcher to reach five wins in a season.

this is how we roll… Prince George's players have recorded at least two hits in a game 114 times this season. The squad has also had three hits in a game by a player 31 times, four hits by a player six times and four five-hit performances. Brandon Crosby leads the way with 19 multi-hit games this season while Dakota McFadden (15), Bay To (14),  Harold Marte (14), Dwayne Coleman (10), Siri-Jacob Ramirez (8), Austin Adams (6), Kilian Bloat (6), Ryan Faircloth (5), Jared Davis (4), Thomas Thorgersen (4), Quentin Rohrbaugh (3), Naquan Holden (2) and Bryan Waltemath (2) have also notch multi-hit contests this season. Crosby has tallied 10 games with three hits while Marte (4), Bloat (3), McFadden (3), Coleman (2), Faircloth (1), Holden (1), Ramirez (1). Adams and McFadden have two four-hit games and Coleman and Waltemath each have one four-hit performance this season while To has two five-hit games and Coleman and Ramirez each recorded a five-hit performance this season.

punch out kings… Five Prince George's pitchers have recorded nine strikeouts or more in a game this season. Jonathan Mahoney posted 11 strikeouts in a five-inning game against Central Virginia on Feb. 8 while Michael Hovermill, Jr. registered 11 strikeouts in nine innings against Anne Arundel on Mar. 28 for the top strikeout mark this season. Dakota McFadden struck out 10 College of Faith hitters on Feb. 18 in seven innings while Mahoney posted nine punch outs against Orange County on Feb. 26 and Kilian Bloat registered nine strikeouts against UVAA on Feb. 17. Thomas Thorgersen recorded nine of his 12 outs recorded via the strikeout against Harford on Apr. 4. Prince George's suffered its first loss of the season against the Fighting Owls when a pitcher tallied at least nine punch outs in a game and sits 5-1 on the year when a hurler reaches that feat.

hovermill honored… Michael Hovermill, Jr. was named the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division III Pitcher of the Week for the week of March 27-April 2. It is Hovermill's first honor of the season. Hovermill pitched a nine inning complete-game gem in a 7-1 win against Anne Arundel Community College on Mar. 28, allowing one run on four hits with one walk and 11 strikeouts on 117 pitches. He pitched a 1-2-3 inning five times and retired 12 of 13 batters faced from the second to the fifth inning with the only hitter reaching base on an error in that stretch. The Riverhawks were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and twice Anne Arundel had runners in scoring position with no outs and the freshman got out of both innings unscathed. 

what a stretch… After going through a five-game winless streak, Prince George's has won 13 of its last 18 games, including going 6-0 against NJCAA Division III teams and have won all four games against Division III Region XX competition. The squad has posted 124 runs in the 13 wins and has tallied 28 innings with two or more runs scored, including five four-run frames, five five-run innings, two six-run inning outburst and a nine-run outburst against Montgomery. The Owls have accounted for 106 of their 124 runs in this span in a multiple scoring run inning. The team has pounded out 165 hits in the 13 victories, including 55 extra base hits (38 doubles, 5 triples, 12 home runs).

region xx tournament… Prince George's Community College will host the NJCAA Division III Region XX Tournament on May 12-14 and looks to be in good position to be the top seed in the three-day event. The Owls swept CACC-Allegheny 6-2 and 11-1 on Mar. 26 and then swept Montgomery 14-11 and 3-2 on Apr. 2. Westmoreland County will come to town on Saturday with the Largo team having a chance to lock up the top seed in the tournament.

in the nation… Brandon Crosby leads the National Junior College Athletic Association with 34 stolen bases while ranking ninth in runs (54) and ninth on-base percentage (558). Dakota McFadden ranks fifth in doubles (17) and Bay To is sixth in slugging percentage (.793). As a team, the Owls lead Division III in slugging percentage (.585) and batting average (.384) while ranking third in on-base percentage (.465), third in home runs (31) fifth in stolen bases (91) and fifth in triples (18). NOTE: Prince George's is an NJCAA Division III member so these rankings only include Division III programs in the nation.

in the league… Brandon Crosby fuels  Maryland JUCO lead in stolen bases (34) while ranking second in batting average (.468), second in on-base percentage (.558), third in hits (59), fourth in runs scored (54) and ninth in doubles (13). Dakota McFadden ranks third in the circuit in ERA (2.76), fourth in doubles (17), fourth in batting average (.434), sixth in RBIs (43) and 10th in slugging percentage (.722). Bay To sits third in triples (4), fifth in batting average (.432), sixth in doubles (14), fifth in slugging percentage (.793), ninth in on base percentage (.511) and eighth in stolen bases (19). Michael Hovermill, Jr. is sixth in wins (5) while Jonathan Mahoney ranks sixth in strikeouts per nine innings (11.30), ninth in ERA (3.56) and 10th in strikeouts (54). Dwayne Coleman is 10th in batting average (.414) and Siri-Jacob Ramirez is ninth in triples (3) while Harold Marte sits eighth in slugging percentage (.722), ninth in batting average (.421) and 10th in on-base percentage (.495). As a team, the Owls lead the conference with a .386 batting average while ranking second in on-base percentage (.465), second in slugging percentage (.585), third in doubles (85), second in triples (18), third in stolen bases (91), third in hits (407), fourth in RBIs (266), fourth in runs (314), third in home runs (31) and fifth in ERA (5.20) in the circuit. NOTE: The Maryland JUCO is comprised of all the teams from Maryland no matter what division affiliation (Division I, II or III).

the long ball… Prince George's has smacked 31 home runs this season. Harold Marte leads the team with seven bombs and Bay To has six homeruns while Dakota McFadden has five long balls, Dwayne Coleman has four homers and Ryan Faircloth has gone deep three times. Brandon Crosby and Naquan Holden have two round trippers while Kilian Bloat and Siri-Jacob Ramirez have hit one ball over the fence this year.

the roster… Head coach Buddy Foster has added 11 freshmen to his team in 2017 while returning 10 players from last year's team.

a loss to the owls family... Legendary Prince George's baseball coach William "Bumps" Vaughan passed away at the age of 90 on Feb. 25. In his long career as a head coach includes 20 years at the helm of the Owls from 1986-2005. The Owls will be wearing a special patch on their uniforms in honor of Vaughan and the athletic department will pay tribute to the legendary coach before the game against Westmoreland County on Saturday.

about the coach… Head coach Buddy Foster enters his sixth season as the head coach of the baseball team. Foster has been at Prince George's since the 2009 campaign after serving as the squad's pitching coach for three seasons before being elevated to the head coach position. He guided the 2014 Owls to the NJCAA Region XX Division III title and advanced to the NJCAA Division III World Series.

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