WYE MILLS, Md. – For the second day in a row, the third seeded Anne Arundel Community College baseball team upended a higher seed to advance in the NJCAA Region 20 DII East Division tournament, this time knocking off top seed and host Chesapeake, 12-2, in eight innings. The Riverhawks advance to the East Division championship game on Sunday at 12 p.m. to face fourth seed CCBC Essex.
AACC combined for eight hits and seven stolen bases, while scoring five runs via sacrifice. Camden Hodges and Agustin Murillo each drove in two runs. Rylan Palle went 3-for-3 with an RBI.
Chesapeake went right after Rivherhawks starter Jack Davidson, tagging the sophomore for two runs on three hits in the bottom of the first. The righty settled after that to allow just five baserunners through the rest of his outing.
AACC scored one run in the third on a Hodges sac fly to right, and tied it up in the fourth on a Murillo sac fly to left.
The Riverhawks really broke open the game in the sixth, scoring six runs on just two hits. Travis Fleshman led off with a walk before Palle singled to right. JC Wilson laid down a bunt to advance the duo, but reached first on an error by the Skipjacks' pitcher. With the bases loaded, Murillo got hit by a pitch to send the first run across and chase out Chesapeake's starter.
Ross followed with a sac fly and Klein loaded the bases with a bunt to the third baseman. After a foul out, Hodges drew an RBI walk and all the runners later advanced on a wild pitch to make it 6-1 Riverhawks.
Russell Turner loaded the bases again after getting hit at the plate, and Klein scored on a failed pickoff attempt at first. Fleshman drew a walk to load the bases again, allowing Palle to collect an RBI via walk.
Matt Donaldson came in in the bottom half of the inning to retire the Skipjacks in order before AACC tacked on another run in the seventh on a Nicco Holland sac fly to center.
The Riverhawks capitalized on two errors and a pair of walks, to score three runs in the eighth inning. A sac fly from Fleshman scored the 10th run. After Palle doubled and stole third, he came across on a JC Wilson RBI groundout. Murillo drew a walk and promptly stole second, scoring when Ross reached via infield error to make it 12-2.
Chesapeake threatened in the bottom half of the inning. The leadoff batter bunted to get on and advanced to second when the next batter grounded out. AACC skipper Nick Hoffner then brought in Caden Houck to close for the second straight day. The sophomore immediately got the second out with a lofty fly out to Ross in center. After allowing a walk, both runners stole to get to second and third, but a fly out to right ended the game and sent AACC to the East Division title game.
Davidson earned the win with five solid innings allowing two runs on five hits while striking out two and walking four. Donaldson walked one and gave up two hits in 2.1 innings of relief work. Houck walked one in the final two-thirds of an inning.
AACC went 2-2 against CCBC Essex during the regular season, with both meetings occurring in April.