Calm, assertive Lancers give Curry run support in baseball win over Titans
Linganore right-hander Stephen Curry felt a somewhat unusual sense of calm rush over him as he began warming up for the sixth inning.
Curry had a seven-run lead to work with, by far the most offensive support he’s received all season. It allowed him to experiment a bit on the mound against Tuscarora baseball, and he soon threw first-pitch curveballs instead of the heavy dose of fastballs he delivered earlier Wednesday afternoon.
The Lancers hope Curry and the rest of their stellar pitching staff can continue to be afforded that freedom following their 7-4 home win over the Titans.
“If we get just a little bit of run support, we’re hard to beat with the dogs we have on the mound,” Linganore coach Bill Long said.
That’s started to show in the last nine days, as the Lancers have pieced together a five-game winning streak following an unexpected loss to Frederick High that forced them to reset their approach at the plate.
“We realized we gotta jump on that first pitch. When that first pitch is there, we can’t miss it,” Curry said. “This game, we had that mindset. If it’s there, hit it, so that’s what we did. We jumped on that first pitch and let it roll.”
It’s beginning to show in the results.
Wednesday’s game marked the third time during its winning streak that Linganore (9-4) has scored at least seven runs after previously doing so just twice this season. It started early against Tuscarora, as first baseman Dylan Remphrey singled in a pair of runs in the first inning to send the Lancers in front. He had a three-hit day.
Shortstop Chase Perry followed with a two-run double in the third, and designated hitter Augie Jansen then knocked an RBI single. Left fielder Bryce Meyer had a sacrifice fly in the fifth, followed by third baseman Gavin Liberto hitting a run-scoring single.
“We’ve gotten better pitches to swing at, and we’ve come through in clutch situations,” Long said. “That’s not something we were doing before. We were leaving a lot of runners in scoring position. But today, we were able to get those in.”
It’s surely a welcome sight for Linganore’s rotation, which has held opponents to three runs or fewer in all but four games. Yet until recently, that didn’t always put the team in a surefire winning position.
The Lancers’ pitchers have continued to deal regardless, and Curry continued his superb senior season against the Titans.
The Seton Hall commit tossed a complete game, striking out eight and scattering four hits. He was particularly efficient in the middle innings, at one point sitting down 11 consecutive batters on no more than three pitches each.
Though he surrendered an earned run for the first time this season in the sixth inning Wednesday, Curry continued to prove difficult to hit.
“I just tried to attack fastball, hit spots, see what they’d do with it,” he said. “But after we got some runs, I was able to relax, mix in some different pitches.”
“Once the second inning hit, my body was relaxed,” he added. “That mound is mine, so I established that. Came in, didn’t leave that mound, pummeled the zone, and I just kept attacking fastball because they weren’t hitting it.”
Tuscarora (8-6) scratched a few across in the final two frames, but it wasn’t enough as it couldn’t handle Curry for most of the afternoon. Catcher Cam Vachon had an RBI groundout, and center fielder Aaron Molishas knocked a two-run single.
Yet, it was a better finish to the Titans’ game than the last time these teams met, which resulted in Linganore’s best offensive performance of the year.
“You don’t like moral victories, but there’s a fight there, and that’s good to see,” Tuscarora coach Mike O’Brien said.
The Lancers showed fight too, especially in the early innings when they put together a lead comfortable enough for Curry to relax more than usual on the mound.
The more they can do that, the more dangerous they become.
“I know on paper, we have this really good pitching staff, but today, we proved we have the hitting support to back it up,” Remphrey said.
