Baseball Spring Break Recap
The CCBC Catonsville Cardinals baseball team played seven games during Spring Break as they get ready to play in the Region XX tournament next month. The Cardinals had a four game home stand to start the week, then travelled to Prince George’s Community College to win the lone road game of the break and ended the break with a doubleheader at home against Chesapeake College. The Cardinals end their home stand this Tuesday against Cecil College as they look to climb up the leaderboard in the Maryland JUCO conference.
The first game of the home stand for the Cardinals was against their CCBC counterparts, Dundalk Lions, on Tuesday, March 27th. The game was an offensive slugfest with both teams combining to score thirty one runs. Freshman, Brenden Diluca made his fourth start of the season and gave up five earned runs in his four innings and was credited with the loss.
Offensively for the Cardinals, much of the damage came from the duo of third baseman, Handy Rodriguez (Ferguson) and right fielder, Matt Shephard (Liberty), both players had three hits each in the game and multiple. Freshman outfielder, Jalen Bowen (Mt. Hebron) hit his first home run in his young career in the Cardinals’ 18-13 loss to the Lions.
The Cardinals took on the Anne Arundel Community College Riverhawks on Thursday, March 29th and cruised to an 11-2 win. Sophomore pitcher, Jonathan Cuas (Business and Tech) gave up only two runs in his seven inning start to get his first win for the season.
Rodriguez and Shephard continued to lead the charge on offense, each having a home run and two RBI’s each in the game. Shortstop, Zeke Maldonado (Archbishop Curley) had his second home run of the season as well as scoring four runs in the Cardinals’ tenth win of the season.
Frederick Community College Cougars travelled to CCBC Catonsville to play a double header on the morning of Saturday, March 31st. The Cougars swept the doubleheader with 18-3 win in the first game and 11-5 win in the second.
Rodriguez continued to rake with four hits in the two games as well as another home run in the second game of the doubleheader. Freshman left fielder Gerald Buchanan (Magruder) had two hits and two RBI’s in the first game of the double header.
The Cardinals played Prince George’s Community College on April 5th, in their only road game of Spring Break and won 17-7 with twenty hits in the game.
Freshman pitcher, Brandon Shipley (Liberty) gave up one earned run in his three and a third inning relief appearance and was credited with his fourth win of the season. After a shaky start to the game, the pitching staff gave up only two runs after the third inning in the Cardinals’ eleventh win of the season.
The big stars on offense for the Cardinals were Rodriguez and Shephard. Rodriguez went 6 for 6 in the game with a home run and three RBI’s in the game. He improved his average to .484 on the season which is the second best in the Maryland JUCO conference. Shephard had a home run and five RBI’s in the game. Both hitters also had a double in the game to bring their season total to 11 doubles each which put them in a tie for third in the conference.
The Cardinals ended Spring Break with a double header at home against Chesapeake College Skipjacks on Friday, April 6th. The Skipjacks swept the double header with a 20-15 win in the first game and 8-1 win in the second.
The Cardinals scored fifteen runs in the first game with Rodriguez and Maldonado each hitting two home runs in the game. Rodriguez went 4 for 4 in the game and now has six home runs on the season which puts him among the conference leaders.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Diluca gave up only one earned run in his four inning start but was credited with the loss.
Freshman second baseman, Easy Goita (James Monroe) had his first home run of the season which was the Cardinals’ only run of the game.
The Cardinals continue their home stand on Tuesday April 10th when they take on Cecil College at 3:30 PM before they hit the road for their next six games.
Head Coach Dan Blue and the rest of the Cardinals baseball team hope to see you at the game on Tuesday!
Go Cardinals!