After close wins on Friday, the Atholton and Glenelg baseball teams have improved to 5-4 and into a tie for fourth place in the Howard County standings behind Mt. Hebron (7-0), Howard (9-1) and defending state champion Reservoir (7-1).
Mt. Hebron will visit Reservoir on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m., and Howard — which defeated Reservoir on Opening Day — will visit the Gators for a rematch on Friday, April 24.
Atholton 9, Wilde Lake 8
The Raiders and Wildecats combined for 27 hits, including eight doubles and three home runs.
Atholton's Jordan Patterson (3 RBI) and Wilde Lake's Matthew Aubin each doubled twice. Atholton's Blake James hit a home run, while Wilde Lake's Cuinn Mullins hit his fifth and sixth home runs of the season and drove in four runs. Wilde Lake's Wyatt Oler drove in three runs with three hits.
The Raiders went ahead with four runs in the top of the fifth, then Nick Raulin pitched three strong innings of relief, striking out four and allowing one run, to earn the win after a 1-2-3 seventh.
A 022 040 1 - 9 13 0
WL 202 301 0 - 8 14 1
Patterson, Raulin (5) and Feuerman. Williams, Palasits, McGonicgal, Mouton and Aubin.
2B: A — Gilreath, Patterson (2), Holtzman, Pickens. WL — Aubin (2), Irizarry-Cruz. HR: A — James. WL — Mullins (2).
Glenelg 3, Centennial 1
Centennial's Connor Atkins (8 K, 0 BB) shut down the Glenelg bats for five innings, but the Gladiators eventually broke through with the go-ahead runs in the top of the seventh on a passed ball and an RBI triple by Davis Jones, who also doubled and had three of Glenelg's seven hits.
Connor Clemens doubled in the loss for the Eagles, and Chris Ransom and Dan Chamberlain added two hits each for Glenelg.
G 000 001 2 - 3 7 1
C 100 000 0 - 1 5 0
2B: G — Jones. C — Clemens. 3B: G — Jones.