On Friday, March 20th, the McLean Highlanders
traveled to Ashburn for their first contest of the 2009 season against the
Stone Bridge Bulldogs. Stone Bridge entered the Liberty District opener for
both teams with a record of 1-0 via a 11-0 defeat of DeMatha Catholic High
School earlier in the week. Stone Bridge also was beginning it’s defense of
their 2008 Liberty District championship. McLean started junior Sean
Fitzgerald on the mound while the Bulldogs countered with senior Nick
Fialdini.Both teams began the game sloppily on defense, as Stone Bridge
committed an error that helped the Highlanders tack two runs on the board in
the top of the first. In the bottom of the inning, McLean gave the runs
right back as two errors of their own enabled Stone Bridge to score three
unearned runs and take an early 3-2 lead.
Both pitchers settled in after the first, and the game remained 3-2 until
McLean’s Brett Bleiweis knocked in the tying run in the top of the third
inning with a single to left field. In the fifth, the Highlanders’ Jordan
Ghannam gave McLean a 4-3 advantage when his singled to center field scored
Chase Mills, who executed a beautiful head first slide at home plate to
avoid being tagged by the Bulldog catcher.
McLean took their 4-3 advantage into the bottom of the 7th
inning, when the Bulldogs mounted a threat due to their leadoff runner
reaching 1st base after Fitzgerald’s 9th strikeout of
the evening. After an error, a fielder’s choice, a hit batsmen, and an
infield single, Fitzgerald bore down to strikeout Stone Bridge leadoff man
Spencer Rositano to end the game and secure the 4-3 win.
Fitzgerald was phenomenal on the mound for McLean, particularly after the
slow start in the first inning. The right hander did now allow a Bulldog
base runner in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th,
or 6th innings and finished the evening with 4 hits allowed while
striking out 10 hitters and walking only one.
Offensively, McLean was paced by junior catcher Denis Buckley (3-4, RBI),
Brett Bleiweis (1-3, RBI), Chris Russo (1-3, run), Erik Payne (1-3, run),
and Fitzgerald (2-3, RBI). Ghannam and junior RF Colin Cannon (1-4) also
recorded their first Varsity base hits for the Highlanders. McLean totaled
10 hits on the evening en route to the win.
