The T. C. Williams baseball team traveled to Yorktown on Wednesday, April 2 to take on the defending National District Champion Patriots in a non-district contest and emerged with an exciting 9-6 victory.
The Titans struck first in the top half of the opening inning with three runs. Lead off man Pike Brynildsen reached on a base hit and with one out shortstop Tim Mannel reached on a fielders choice sending Brynildsen to third base. Clean up hitter, Sam Alexander, delivered the Titans first run with a sacrifice fly that scored Brynildsen. Third baseman Robert Mannel followed with an opposite field two run home run to give the Titans a quick 3-0 lead.
The Patriots responded with a run in the bottom of the second inning and the Titans added one in the top of the second. After the Titans failed to score in the top of the third, the Patriots came to bat in the bottom half of the inning trailing by a score of 4-1. Yorktown put up 4 runs in the bottom of the third inning against Titans starting pitcher, Marc Grosser, who had not allowed a hit in the first two innings of play. The Patriots used a base on balls and a hit batsman, followed by back to back home runs to take a 5-4 lead at the end of three innings. The Titans quickly regained the lead in the top of the fourth inning on a one-out singles by catcher Trav Clark and Brynildsen, followed by a walk to second baseman Mike Baber, an RBI single by Tim Mannel and a mammoth home run by Alexander to plate 5 runs and stake the Titans to a 9-5 advantage.
Lefthander Sam Bair came on to pitch for the Titans in the bottom of the fourth inning and completely silenced the home teams bats, holding the Patriots to only one run over the final four innings of play.
Bair is listed in the Titans media guide at 145 lbs. Based upon his performance Wednesday night, 140 lbs. of that must be heart. The crafty southpaw never blinked and never backed down facing the powerful lineup sent to the plate by the Patriots. Bair kept the home teams hitters completely off balance with a dizzying array of change ups and breaking balls, complemented by the occasional fast ball.
Bair needed only 53 pitches to complete his four innings of work and seal the win for the Titans.
