We Are The Champions: Prince George's Baseball Takes NJCAA Division III Region Title With 6-5 Win Against Montgomery

PHOTO GALLERY

LARGO, Md. – Bay To (Philadelphia, Pa./Neumann) hit a two-run single in the seventh inning to propel Prince George's Community College to its fourth National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region XX Baseball Championship with a 6-5 come-from behind victory against Montgomery on Tuesday.

With the win, the Owls (31-12-1) will host Surry Community College on Friday and Saturday in a best two-out-of-three series. The two teams will play a pair nine-inning games on Friday starting at 12 p.m. and if necessary the two teams will come back and play a deciding third game on Saturday at 11 a.m. The Knights won NJCAA Division III Region X with a 16-10 win against Danville. The winner of this series advances to the NJCAA Division III World Series.

To, who had the game-tying hit in the 6-5 win against Butler on Sunday and the game-tying hit in the 8-7 victory against Montgomery on Monday, decided to put Prince George's ahead this time with his at-bat in the seventh. After Dwayne Coleman (Lothian, Md./Southern) plated the tying run on an RBI single to left field, To found the hole on the left side of the infield and into left field to bring home Brandon Crosby (Richmond, Va./Atlee, Mechanicsville) and Coleman to hand the Owls a 6-4 advantage.

The Raptors (25-25) scored a run on an RBI groundout by Chris Amparo in the eighth to make it a one-run game. Jordan Cissel and Naja Garcia walked with one out, but Ryan Faircloth (Wade, N.C./Cape Fear) induced a pair of groundout to maintain a 6-5 edge. James Wilcox III (Sterling, Va./Dominion) came in and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth on a fly out, strikeout and To groundout at shortstop to secure the victory.

Dakota McFadden (Largo, Md./Heide Trask [N.C.]) paced the Owls with two hits, two RBIs and a run scored including his ninth homer of the year. Coleman registered a hit, two runs scored and an RBI while To had a hit and two RBIs to give the squad its fourth region title after also taking home the title in 1978, 1979 and 2014.

Michael Hovermill, Jr. (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Spackenkill) allowed four runs (two earned) on eight hits with five walks and six strikeouts in seven innings to pick up his team-leading seventh victory of the year. Crosby, Faircloth, McFadden, To and Kevin Kornieck (Largo, Md./Woodbridge [Va.]) were named to the All-Tournament team.

Cole Wykoff and Chris Amparo each had two hits and an RBI for Montgomery while Darren Prebble posted two hits and a run scored in the loss. Wykoff, Vincent Anninos, Brock Antognoni and Greg Brown were selected to the All-Tournament team.

For the fourth time this season the two neighboring county teams battled and for the fourth time it was a fight to the bitter end, but at the end of the day Prince George's was hoisting the trophy.

The Raptors got the scoring started thanks to a pair of runs scoring on an error in the second for a 2-0 lead.

The Owls answered right back in the bottom of the frame with two runs thanks to back-to-back homers from McFadden and Harold Marte (Haymarket, Va./Battlefield) to even the score at 2. The power-hitting duo pace the team with nine homers apiece.

The game remained tied at 2 until the sixth when Coleman was hit was a pitch and came around to score on McFadden's RBI double to right center for a 3-2 lead.

In the seventh, Montgomery regained the advantage on a 3-2 count homerun by Brown and a run-scoring double by Wykoff for a 4-3 edge.

A three-run bottom of the seventh sealed the win for the Largo program. Jared Davis (Largo, Md./Bayside [Va.]) singled and moved to second on a wild pitch before Crosby walked. Coleman brought home Davis on a single to left field to tie the game at 4 before To had the hit to remember with a two-run single through the left side to score Crosby and Coleman for the go-ahead and decisive runs for a 6-4 lead. Faircloth and Wilcox then closed it out to secure the win and continue on of the best seasons in program history.