Like most of his teammates, Glenelg senior Carter Mullinix didn't do much in the first five innings against visiting River Hill on Tuesday.
But Mullinix did more than enough in the last two innings -- pitching two scoreless frames in relief of sophomore starter Sean Kinloch and driving in the game-winning run on a walkoff sacrifice fly to right field in the bottom of the seventh -- to make it a memorable game.
"It was really awesome," said Mullinix, whose team improved to 2-0 with the 1-0 win. "I knew I had to go opposite field. I couldn't hit a ground ball because there were no angles, they were pinched so far in."
River Hill senior Rohan Tilva, who has committed to Johns Hopkins, was strong on the mound in the loss, allowing just two infield hits — to Garrett Southern in the fourth and Davis Jones in the sixth — and striking out eight in six innings of work.
"You've got to give Rohan a lot of credit. He works really hard, throws a lot of strikes and has good stuff," River Hill coach Wes McCoy said.
The game was the first between the teams since Glenelg eliminated River Hill from the playoffs, 5-3, last May 9. Tuesday's game was originally scheduled as the season opener, but was postponed last Friday because of weather.
"In a rivalry game you never know what you're going to get," Glenelg coach Steve Ballance said. "We expected it to be tough. We were preparing for Tilva since weeks ago ... it's just one of those things that goes to show you with all the planning you do, you know what he's going to do, and his pitching was better than our bats today. Our bats got better as the game went along, but he did a tremendous job."
Tilva turned the ball over to freshman Josh Mann for the seventh inning. Southern led off with his second hit of the game, then courtesy runner Matt Liebno stole second and reached third on a pitch in the dirt. That allowed Mullinix to drive home the winning run on a shallow liner to right field, as Liebno avoided catcher Ryan Benedek's tag with a fade-away slide.
"Matt's a great baserunner. He tagged up on that shallow fly ball and scored," Mullinix said.
River Hill appeared to put two runs on the board in support of Tilva in the third inning when Jordan Northrup belted a two-out line drive to deep center field with runners on first and third. Glenelg center fielder Nick Goneconto turned and sprinted toward the outfield fence, dove, and came up with the baseball as a pair of River Hill baserunners crossed the plate.
The umpires initially ruled that the ball was fielded off of the grass, but after consulting with each other, ruled it a catch, ending the inning without any runs scored.
"I saw him dive. He had a bead on it. Off the bat I thought it was a double. But once I saw him dive, he came up with it," Ballance said. "If the ball hits the ground it's going to roll some or bounce around. He dives and comes right up.
"He made a reaction to look at the umpire, and the umpire had no out or safe call so he had to throw it in. At that point you just have to wait for the play to progress."
McCoy, whose team lost 3-0 on a no-hitter against Long Reach's Nick Moy on Monday, did not use the controversial play as an excuse.
"It was not a hit. It was an out. It was a catch," McCoy said. "Glenelg played really well. They played clean defense. They got the big situational hitting, and both pitchers did a nice job. You get into a close game like that and sometimes you've just got to flip a coin and it was their day. They totally deserved to win."
River Hill has yet to score a run in two games, and had just two hits on Tuesday -- a Jack Adamson single in the second, and a Ryan Benedek bloop double in the third.
"We'll keep playing hard and keep learning and ask our hitters to see pitches and get a little tougher at the plate," McCoy said. "It's all part of a long process."
RH (0-2) 000 000 0 - 0 2 1
G (2-0) 000 000 1 - 1 3 0
Tilva, Mann (7) and Benedek. Kinloch, Mullinix (6) and Southern.
2B: RH — Benedek.