Family bragging rights and an unbeaten streak were on the line Wednesday when Western Tech's baseball team defeated Lansdowne, 9-3, at Lansdowne High School.
It's why Western Tech junior Dylan Beall was beaming after helping to keep Western Tech unbeaten (4-0), and why his twin brother, Dalton, was disappointed when Lansdowne slipped to 3-3 aftter three straight wins.
"This was all about pride," Dylan Beall said. "I wanted this game more than anything."
The family highlight came in the top of the sixth inning when Dylan drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single off his brother.
Dalton Beall, who transferred from Catonsville, had come on to pitch in relief of Cameron McCarthy, another Catonsville transfer, who pitched the first five innings and allowed two runs and five hits.
"It's at the point of the year where I've got to protect arms," Lansdowne coach Matt Kohel said of his decision to lift McCarthy with a 3-2 lead.
Dalton started the top of the sixth with back-to-back strikeouts. Consecutive walks to Curtis Robinson and Jacob Wainglass and an errant pickoff attempt at third base allowed Robinson to tie the score, 3-3.
After Nygel Winston reached on an error, Dylan's ground single to right scored Wainglass.
"I'm just looking to get a ball to the right side and score a run," Dylan said. "I was waiting for the inside pitch and it was 2-and-1, and I knew he had to come to me."
Winston scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-3 and Dylan advanced to third. That's when Dalton picked him off to end the inning.
"I was waiting for it," Dylan said. "I thought I was in. He's quick."
With two outs and nobody on in the top of the seventh, Western Tech added four more runs.
Singles by Jon McDonal (2-for-3, RBI) and Malachi Gatewood and walks to Keith Gamer and Robinson started the rally that ended with a two-run double by Wainglass.
Lansdowne had a 3-0 lead in the third inning after walks to CJ Monroe and Joe D'Urso and a bloop single by Mike Trietley. All three scored on wild pitches.
"We try to preach taking advantage of their mistakes and doing stuff with their freebies and we scored three runs on wild pitches," Kohel said. "We'll take that, but we need to score runs in other ways. It's tough to win a baseball game with two hits."
The hit by Trietley was the only one allowed by sophomore starting pitcher Robinson.
"Not many guys have that kind of composure after getting beat up early," Western Tech coach Brad Hoskin said. "He came back strong and was throwing some strikes."
Robinson walked six in the first three innings but didn't issue a walk after that. He allowed just the one hit and struck out five in six innings.
Dylan Beall pitched the seventh and allowed a hit to Monroe.
He retired Dalton on a foul popup, which he caught himself, for the final out.
"When I was pitching, he kept telling me to throw him a strike and I threw him a curveball inside and he popped it up," Dylan said.