COLUMBIA, MD — Stepping to the plate in the bottom of the 10th with the bases loaded against Marriotts Ridge on Wednesday, Atholton senior Jordan Patterson had one thought: waiting for a good pitch that he could drive.
His patience paid off. Patterson drew a four-pitch walk with no outs to score the winning run. As he jogged to first base, he knew that the Raiders' 3-2 win was all that mattered.
"I was just waiting for the right pitch. I wasn't going to swing at anything I didn't think I could put a good swing on. I was just trying to focus on hitting a line drive, but I didn't get that opportunity," he said. "I was just happy that we got the win, that's all I cared about."
Patterson, who threw a complete-game, two-hit shutout against Long Reach last week for the Raiders' first win of the season, took the ball in the sixth inning on Wednesday with his team trailing 2-0, and proceeded to shut down the Mustangs over the final five innings to earn the win.
"I just focused on throwing strikes, trying to pound the zone," said Patterson, who struck out four and allowed three hits. "You've got to give them something to hit and see what they can do."
Sophomore Gunnar Barnard started the game for the Mustangs, and allowed only one run until the bottom of the seventh, when starting pitcher Nick Raulin (5 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 8 K, 1 BB) singled with one out, advanced to third on a Sammy Feurman double, and scored on an infield grounder by sophomore Ethan Lee to send the game to extra innings.
"We're still trying to find ourselves as a team, trying to plug in people in different places," said Atholton coach Jon Dupski, who graduated Player of the Year Brady Acker and numerous other starters. "But now we're getting guys to start stepping up."
The game remained tied until Lee led off the bottom of the 10th with an infield single, then advanced to third on successful bunts by Ryan Hess (2-2, 2 BB, R) and Josh Pickens, setting up Patterson's game winning walk.
Despite the low score and strong outing by Barnard on the mound, Marriotts Ridge coach Paul Eckert said that his team identified many areas for improvement after the loss.
"We were about 2-for-6 fielding bunts. We are very young, we are very inexperienced, we are learning at the varsity level and we will hopefully continue to learn," Eckert said. "This was certainly a learning experience ... walks, lack of execution with bunting offensively and bunting defensively, those are little things that we're going to continue to work on."
Marriotts Ridge dropped to 1-3 against league competition, while Atholton improved to 2-2.
"We had a rough start, but we're coming up," Patterson said. "I definitely feel a shift in energy."
MR (1-3) 100 100 000 0 - 2
A (2-2) 000 001 100 1 - 3