NEWS

By Marc Goldstein

Like the tides, a baseball season will ebb and flow. Sometimes in the season, squads will look like well-oiled machines while others they look hapless. The Alexandria Aces saw the duality of baseball on consecutive nights. Coming off a shutout loss, the Aces jumped all over their lone in-state rival, the Metro SoCo Braves, 15-5. The win was a pure encapsulation of everything the Aces want to do as they look to repeat as league champions.

The name of the game for the Aces has been adjustments. Not only does Alexandria Manager Chris Berset want adjustments between games, but also plate appearances.

“We had a talk today about some of our mid-game adjustments,” Berset said. “I thought they have been lacking from Silver Spring and Bethesda recently. It is just about understanding what the pitcher is trying to do, how he is trying to get you out… Off that, the guys can still stick to their core beliefs… that is where you get 15 runs, we adjusted.”

Batting first, the Braves scored a run as three of the first four batters of the game hit singles, loading the bases against Alexandria starter Cade Mattison (Mississippi Gulf Coast). An RBI groundout by Cole Fleming (NJIT) plated the first run of the game. The Braves scored in the first inning for the fourth straight game. However, they gave up multiple runs in the first frame for the fourth straight game as well.

Aaron Park (NJIT) was not as sharp in the first inning. He also loaded the bases and recorded his first out in run-producing fashion as Cory Taylor (Eastern Michigan) hit a sacrifice fly. However, an errant pickoff throw scored a run from third. Later in the inning, wild pitches on consecutive pitches scored a pair, making it 4-1 after an inning of play.

Mattison faced the minimum in the second inning, due in large part to an inning-ending double play turned by his middle infield. The Aces turned two twin killings on the game, the most of the year for them. Defensively, they put on a clinic, commiting no errors and making tough plays look ordinary.

The Aces would extend their lead on another sacrifice fly, this time by RJ Hamilton (Vanderbilt) to make it 5-1 after two. The Braves would not go away, however, scoring a pair in the top of the third on a Braden Ramirez (Dayton) RBI single and a bases loaded walk by Jason Mendler (Christopher Newport). Mattison would finish the inning and record one out in the fourth before getting the hook in favor of Brent Hermann (Allegheny). Berset thought highly of the outing for Mattison, who went 3.1 innings, giving up eight hits and four runs, three of them earned while striking out three and walking two.

“(Cade) has been dealing with one of his nails being chipped a little bit, so I wanted to get him some innings out there,” Berset said. “He battled. He’s just trying to get back into the rhythm of things, so he did a good job of getting some ground balls.”

Hermann entered the game for the second straight night in order to put out a fire on the bases. He did just that, retiring both batters faced that inning, though one did pick up an RBI groundout to make the score 5-4.

That would be the closest it would get for the rest of the game as in the bottom half of the inning with two outs and runners on first and second, Gavin Miller (Auburn) skied a ball out to left that looked like a sure out. Mendler, the Braves left fielder, camped out under it but dropped the ball, allowing two runs to score.

The tough break was just the tip of the iceberg for the Braves’ misfortunes down the stretch. The Aces scored five more runs to put the game out of reach. Tim Nicholson (George Washington) picked up three of his five RBI on the night on a bases-clearing double into the left field corner to make the score 11-5.

“I had just swung and missed at a breaking ball earlier,” Nicholson said. “He had just gone with a couple fastballs up so I was kind of sitting on a breaking ball in that situation. He hung it and I put a good swing on it.”

Miller would take a similar approach as he also went down the left field line to score a blazing fast Hamilton from first to cap off the frame.

With the exception of a sacrifice fly for the Braves, a wild pitch scoring another run for the Aces and a two-run single for Nicholson, the scoring subsided for the night.

The pitching, specifically the relief corps, will be something of note for the Aces. Berset opted to use some of his pitchers that had not seen a ton of work early in the season. Following Hermann, Josh Rivera (UMBC) threw a solid two innings. Graeme Carroll (Bucknell) and Mark Schweickert (Allegheny) both threw perfect eighth and ninth innings, respectively to close out the victory.

“(Hermann) deserved that opportunity,” Berset said. “He came into the Bethesda game and got out of a big jam so I wanted to see him do it again and on back-to-back days. (Rivera) is one of our guys so he was able to go right out and go after them. (Carroll) was great again. (Schweickert) had a rough debut for us, so we wanted to give him another chance out there tonight and we were really happy with his inning.”

With the victory, Berset and the Aces  avoided consecutive losses and remained unbeaten in their division. The Braves will look ahead as they will look to strengthen themselves before putting themselves up against the measuring stick in the form of the Aces, a team that is coming off a championship and looks destined to make another deep run. That is not to say that the Braves are not in contention, but for now, the Aces reign supreme and keep their rivals at arms length both on the field and in the standings.