By Phil Murphy
Content Editor, Digital Sports
**All highlights posted. Re-live Friday’s game in 11 minutes below. Interviews to be added at 9:15 p.m.**
For six innings, South County junior Brennan Miller‘s pitches were as difficult to locate as Simpson Field itself.
T.C. Williams’ adopted home, tucked into downtown Alexandria, borders Route 1, but direct access has been cut off due to construction. It’s visible from the main road, but nearly impossible to get to.
In a complete game, Miller struck out 11, while scattering five hits and walking one, and the Stallions broke the game open with a six-run sixth inning to top the Titans, 10-3, on Friday.
“We played a terrible game on Wednesday,” said Miller, who threw 65 of his 100 pitches for strikes. “We had to step it up tonight and our whole team did that pretty well.”
Miller opened the game by recording seven of his first nine outs by strikeout. The only T.C. Williams runner to reach base was senior Lee Tackett (0-1, SAC), who was granted first base after a pitch flirted with his left sleeve.
The junior right-hander mixed breaking pitches beautifully to constantly keep the Titan batters guessing.
“He was changing speeds well,” said T.C. Williams coach Scott Grossi, in his third season (5-6, 2-3). “He was hitting spots with his fastball and I think he threw a majority of off-speed pitches. He has really good off-speed pitches.
“It seems like everything he threw, it was the pitch at that point. Our guys couldn’t do anything the first time around.”
Miller’s only blemish before his arm began to tire in the seventh inning came in the fourth. A seven-pitch walk to Mike Baber (0-2, 2 BB) was followed two batters late by a first-pitch, two-run home run by opposing starting pitcher, Sam Alexander, that tied the game, 2-2.
“We told everybody that they have to go up there with a plan,” Grossi said. “[Alexander] actually told me before he went up there, ‘I’m looking for a first-pitch curveball,’ or slider, whichever one it was.
“He said, ‘If he throws that pitch, I’m going to crush it.'”
Two innings after the pitcher-on-pitcher equalizer, Miller’s teammates locked up his win. The Stallions sent ten batters to the plate in the sixth inning.
Senior third baseman Seth Jordan (1-3, 2 RBI, 3 R) sparked the rally when he drove in what proved to be the winning run on the first pitch of his at-bat after a requested time-out was not granted.
“There was a guy on second, Kyle Michaels,” he said. “And Coach Luther came up to me and he told to swing at the first pitch no matter what. I was up there, it was a curveball and I just took a hack and popped it into right field.”
After junior Nick Digby (2-4, RBI) grounded out in a fielder’s choice, South County recorded five straight hits beginning with senior Mike Gibbons (1-2, 3 RBI). They scored six runs in the inning, five earned.
The Stallions (6-4, 4-1) would add two more in the top of the seventh.
“After [Lake] Braddock put a thumping on us, this was a huge game for us,” said South County coach Mark Luther, who has won the last two Patriot District Championships. “And going up against the Spartans [next Tuesday], this was a very important game.
“We try not to make one game more important than the other for our guys, but in the back of our minds this was a very critical game for us, trying to keep pace with Braddock and Springfield.”
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
South County 0 2 0 0 0 6 2 10 12 2
T.C. Williams 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 3 4 3
E-mail: pmurphy@digitalsports.com
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