8/7/2019 CCT 03-31-2011 Sports: Opening Day

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BY PATRICK STOETZERTIMES STAFF WRITER

ELDERSBURG Theyllremember this one for awhile, at least until ascorcher of a day comesalong late in the season thatmakes them wonder, was itreally that cold back in lateMarch, or did ice actually fallfrom the sky?

It was, and it did, duringWednesdays county baseballgame between Liberty andCentury. The Lions held onfor a 7-6 win in five inningsbefore umpires stopped playwith one out and one on inthe top of the sixth.

The thermometer flirtedwith 40 degrees throughoutthe game and when rainturned to sleet, then snow,then pill-sized ice pellets,players and coaches won-dered if they were seeing

things.It was just crazy, saidLions junior third basemanGregWheatley, his cheeks red

and nose a bit

runny mo-ments afterthe game. Yo-ur body getsfrozen, youcant feel any-thing. Youretrying to hopefor the ball, ifit gets to you, to just make anice throw.

Liberty (3-1, 2-0 in thecounty) scored three runs inthe fourth that proved to bethe difference. Run-scoringhits from Tim Anderson,Andrew Massey and BobbyConlon put the Lions up 7-3

amid the peculiar precipita-tion.Century, which led 2-0 in

the first on back-to-back

home runs from Michael

Austin and Kyle Brandt,chipped away at Libertyslead. The Knights got a runback in the fourth on TylerFellners solo homer to rightand made things even moreinteresting in the fifth.

Austin, Nathan Darnleyand Zac Green loaded thebases against Massey andwith one out Fellner laced adouble into the right-centergap. Austin and Darnleyscored, but Liberty threw outpinch-runner A.J. Frederickson a nice relay from centerfielder Sean Naylor to firstbaseman Justin Folliard to

Conlon, the catcher.Liberty got a runner onbase in the sixth before playwas halted.

This was a lot to over-

come, but I thought the kidsdid a real good job of focus-ing, said Lions coach ErikBarnes. They did what theyhad to do and tried to dealwith the elements as bestthey could.

Barnes credited his de-fense, Folliard in particular,for giving Massey some sup-port. Massey struck out eightand walked none in the vic-tory.

His counterpart, Austin,struggled with his commandbut helped his own causewith two hits and two runsscored.

Fellner reached base threetimes and had three RBIs fo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SARASOTA, Fla. The Balti-more Orioles completed their firstcamp under Buck Showalter witha newfound appreciation for agritty baseball manager whosereputation as a no-nonsense drillsergeant proved to be significantlyoverstated.

Sure, the Orioles covered thefundamentals. Yes, they workedhard, for some even on what wassupposed to be the only off day

of the six-week camp.In short, they did the things nec-essary to put them in position tobreak a franchise-record run of 13straight losing seasons.

When they packed their bagsWednesday and headed to TampaBay for Fridays season opener, theplayers realized why Showalterenjoyed success with the NewYork Yankees, Arizona and Texas.

Its the best camp Ive everbeen a part of. Professional andefficient, left fielder Luke Scottsaid. Theres no what we calleyewash, when you stand aroundjust going through the motions tolook like youre doing something.

There was none of that here.Everything we did was productive,with a purpose.

BThursday,

March 31,

201SSPPOORRTTSSwww.carrollcountytimes.comCCoonnttaacc

tt uuss:: 410-857-7896 or sports@carrollcountytimes.com

NBA

Heat beatWizards afterscuffle /B4

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Grab the parka, ski cap, mittensand galoshes. Its time for base-ball.

From Dodger Stadium to Yan-kee Stadium, there was a flurry ofactivity as teams got ready for

pening day. At Great Americanall Park, meanwhile, actual flur-

ies.Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder andhe Milwaukee Brewers workedut as snow flakes fell Wednes-

day, a day before they were toplay Cincinnati.

The conditions were bettersuited for snowballs than base-balls, too, when the Reds latertook the field.

I love it. I love the weather,eds second baseman Brandonhillips deadpanned. The wea-her is beautiful.The forecast for the six open-

rs today wasnt much better, ei-ther. Rain with temperatures inthe 40s in Washington, New York

and Kansas City, downrightchilly in Cincinnati.

If youre playing golf and its33 and windy, you take it into theclubhouse and play cards. Unfor-tunately we have to keep play-ing, Yankees star Mark Teixeirasaid, set to face Detroit in the

Bronxs first March game. Itsnot easy playing in the cold butthe good thing is both teams haveto do it.

Said Tigers catcher Alex Avila:Its going to be perfect weather,

Despite cold, Opening Day arrives

AP PHOTO

Milwaukee Brewers players jog in the snow at Great Ameri-can Ball Park Wednesday in Cincinnati. The Brewers opentheir season today against the Cincinnati Reds in Cincinnati.

Players ready toplay ball even inlow temperatures

Managers first Os camp deemed success

AP PHOTO

Baltimore Orioles managerBuck Showalter watches bat-ting practice before a gameagainst the Pittsburgh Piratesin Sarasota, Fla., March 14.

Braving the storm

Baseball

Liberty players overcome sleet, rain to beat Century in five innings

DAVE MUNCH/STAFF PHOTO

Libertys Andrew Massey delivers a pitch as snow falls during the game against Century Wednesday.

Softball

Thompsontakes back

in for Lions

BY BARRY L. SILVERMANTIMES STAFF WRITER

ELDERSBURG Nei-ther wind, nor rain, norhail, nor late-inning ral-lies could upset pitcher

ackenzie Thompsonand Libertys softballteam.

With un-spring-likeprecipitation comingdown and a last-gaspCentury rally brewing,

thanks to back-to-backinfield errors, Thompsonand the Lions were ontheir way to comingunglued in the seventhinning.

But the sophomorehurler called time, gath-ered her composure andcalmly struck out thenext three batters toclose out the game andhand the host Knightstheir first county loss, 5-2.

I felt we had a bigenough lead, Thompsonsaid. So I wasnt too

worried. The only prob-lem was that the ball waswet and hard to grip.

With the win, the Lions(3-0, 2-0 county) stayperfect on the season.

While most of thegame was played in dry

conditions, the Knights(3-1, 1-1) could manageonly three singles offThompson.

We didnt have manyopportunities, Knightscoach Jay Seaborg said.We just werent at ourbest today and you haveto be to beat her.

From the start,Thompson kept herpitches down in thestrike zone, forcing theKnights into hitting weakgrounders to the left

Knights mount comeback,but not enough to nab victory

Panthers rallyafter scare

BY BRIAN HAINESTIMES STAFF WRITER

HAMPSTEAD Withthe snow falling, temper-tures dropping and theeather more befitting offootball game,

he North Carrollsoftball team

owned West-inster 9-5 in five

nnings Wednes-ay afternoon.But the game

nd the victoryere a distant

second on theminds of the Panthersplayers after a scary mo-ment in the third inning.

With a runner on firstand two outs, Owlsshortstop Brooke DeKettdrilled a pitch right back

up the middle. Despitethe mound being movedback from 40 to 43 feet

this season, NC pitcherSam Stitely was unable toget her glove up in timeand took the ball off her

face right abovethe eyebrow.

The seniordropped to theground and playstopped as all at-tention was fo-cused on themound.

After a lengthydelay, Stitely was

taken off the field on astretcher and into an am-bulance.

NC coach Lloyd Fordgot word late Wednesday

North Carroll downs Owls;pitcher gets hit above eye

5

9

25

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Please see Orioles, BPlease see Opening Day, B4

Please see Lions, B3

Please see Panthers, B3 Please see Storm, B

It was just crazy. Your body getsfrozen, you cant feel anything.

Greg WheatleyLions third baseman