Prince George's Baseball Starts Final Week Of Regular Season With Doubleheader At The College of Southern Maryland On Tuesday

Prince George's Baseball Starts Final Week Of Regular Season With Doubleheader At The College of Southern Maryland On Tuesday

GAME DAY INFORMATION
No. 8 Prince George's (26-11-1, 10-10-1 MD JUCO)
at College of Southern Maryland (11-24, 5-17 MD JUCO)
Tue, May 2, 2017, 2 p.m.
Baseball Field | La Plata, Md.

GAME ONE LIVE STATS | GAME TWO LIVE STATS

PRINCE GEORGE'S: ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS
COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN MARYLAND: ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATISTICS

opening pitch… Prince George's starts its final week of the regular season with five road games with a doubleheader at the College of Southern Maryland on Tuesday. The two teams have split the season series in three of the last four years after the 2014 season series was cancelled.

the word on the hawks… The College of Southern Maryland comes into the contest 11-24 overall and 5-17 in league play after splitting a doubleheader with Garrett on Saturday. CJ Hill leads the team with a .360 batting average with 32 hits, 23 runs scored, 14 doubles, a homer and 21 RBIs. Derek Taitano is hitting .343 with 35 hits, 23 runs scored, eight doubles, two triples, a homer and 24 RBIs while Rudy Carrico III is batting .333 with 20 hits, six runs scored, two doubles and nine RBIs. Trevor Burch leads the team with 42.2 innings pitched, a 2-3 record and 20 strikeouts.

last time out… Siri-Jacob Ramirez (Orlando, Fla./Cenapec [Dominican Republic]) scored on a wild pitch to give eighth-ranked Prince George's Community College a 5-4 walk-off win in the bottom of the seventh of the nightcap against Garrett College on Sunday. The Lakers won the opener, 8-4. After the Owls tied the game at 4 with single runs in the fifth and the sixth, Ramirez was hit with the pitch to start the bottom of the seventh. The big tall catcher then stole second to get in scoring position with no outs. The Lakers looked to be getting out of the jam after a short fly out to center and a groundout that moved Ramirez to third. With Kilian Bloat batting with an 0-1 count, the next pitched bounced near the plate and high off the backstop to allow Ramirez to scurry home with the decisive run. Ramirez posted a hit and two runs scored on the afternoon. Brandon Crosby recorded three hits, two runs scored, three stolen bases and an RBI on the day while Bay To recorded three hits, two RBIs and a run scored. Dwayne Coleman had two hits and an RBI, and Quentin Rohrbaugh posted two hits, a run scored and an RBI in the opener.  

next on tap… Prince George's travels to Cecil for a nine-inning affair 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 six 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 38 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 became the fourth player in that span with 20 steals and currently has 21 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 59 runs to post the most runs scored in the last five years for the team while he has tied Roland Euseio (65, 2016) in base hits with 65 in the last five years. Dakota McFadden has posted 20 doubles this season to notch the most doubles in the last five years while his 44 RBIs stands seven behind Jeremy Hagstrom's (50) total from last year. Bay To and 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 and how has six on the year.

this is how we roll… Prince George's players have recorded at least two hits in a game 120 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 21 multi-hit games this season while Dakota McFadden (16), Bay To (15),  Harold Marte (14), Dwayne Coleman (11), Siri-Jacob Ramirez (8), Austin Adams (6), Kilian Bloat (6), Ryan Faircloth (5), Jared Davis (4), Thomas Thorgersen (4), Quentin Rohrbaugh (4), 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. Hovermill had nine strikeouts against Westmoreland on Apr. 29 and MdFadden had nine punchouts against Garrett on Apr. 30. The Owls are 6-2 when a pitcher has nine or more strikeouts in a game.

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 17 of its last 22 games, including going 8-0 against NJCAA Division III teams and have won all six games against Division III Region XX competition. The squad has posted 140 runs in the 17 wins and has tallied 33 innings with two or more runs scored, including six four-run frames, five five-run innings, two six-run inning outburst and a nine-run outburst against Montgomery. The Owls have accounted for 120 of their 140 runs in this span in a multiple scoring run inning. The team has pounded out 187 hits in the 17 victories, including 65 extra base hits (46 doubles, 5 triples, 15 home runs).

region xx tournament… Prince George's Community College will host the NJCAA Division III Region XX Tournament on May 12-14 and locked up the top seed in the three-day event. The Owls swept Community College of Allegheny County-South 6-2 and 11-1 on Mar. 26 and then swept Montgomery 14-11 and 3-2 on Apr. 2. Prince George's locked up the No. 1 seed with 8-4 and 3-0 victories against Westmoreland County on Apr. 29 to end the year 6-0 against Region XX opponents.

in the nation… Brandon Crosby leads the National Junior College Athletic Association with 38 stolen bases while ranking eighth in runs (59). Dakota McFadden ranks third in doubles (20) and Bay To is fourth in slugging percentage (.802). As a team, the Owls lead Division III in slugging percentage (.580) and batting average (.377) while ranking third in on-base percentage (.458), third in home runs (35) seventh in stolen bases (100) and fifth in triples (18), seventh in doubles (96), eighth in runs (335), eighth in hits (439), ninth in triples (23) and 10th in RBIs (283). 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 (38) while ranking second in batting average (.464), second in on-base percentage (.550), third in hits (59), fourth in runs scored (59) and eighth in doubles (14). Dakota McFadden ranks second in the circuit in doubles (20), sixth in in ERA (2.98), sixth in batting average (.427), eighth in RBIs (44), 10th in strikeouts per nine innings (9.87) and 10th in slugging percentage (.750). Bay To sits third in triples (4), third in batting average (.438), fifth in on base percentage (.520), sixth in doubles (15), seventh in slugging percentage (.802) and seventh in stolen bases (21). Michael Hovermill, Jr. is fourth in wins (6) while Jonathan Mahoney ranks fifth in strikeouts per nine innings (10.88) and ninth in strikeouts (58). As a team, the Owls lead the conference with a .377 batting average while ranking second in on-base percentage (.458), second in slugging percentage (.580), second in doubles (96), second in triples (18), third in stolen bases (100), third in hits (439), fourth in RBIs (283), fourth in runs (335), fourth in home runs (35) and fourth in ERA (4.97) 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 35 home runs this season. Harold Marte  and Bay To lead the team with seven bombs each Dakota McFadden has six long balls, Dwayne Coleman has four homers and Ryan Faircloth has gone deep three times. Kilian Bloat, Brandon Crosby, Naquan Holden and Siri-Jacob Ramirez have hit two balls 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 paid tribute to Vaughan with a tip of the cap moment of silence before its doubleheader against Westmoreland County on Apr. 29.

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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