Clearly, Columbia Reds No. 1 Team Manager Larry Thompson was ticked off.
His team was tied for second place with Liberty Road behind the Bedouins in the tough Metro Baseball League, but 13 of his 18 players didn't show up for Thursday night's game at Atholton High.
Instead, they all were frolicking at Ocean City, enjoying what they thought was a well-earned senior-week vacation.
Thompson was soshort-handed he had to call up three players from the Reds 16-and-under team and use another non-roster player just to field the minimum of nine.
The result was an 8-4 loss to Pikesville, a team the Redsordinarily would have whopped. The defeat left Thompson livid.
"Columbia kids are soft," he said. "They don't want to dedicate themselves. That's why we have only one guy (Jeff Cyran) who might be a Division I player."
Cyran (Hammond), a first-team All-Metro selection by The Sun, was one of the 13 at the beach.
Pikesville Manager Richard Dotson also was short five players who were at the beach.
"Wedon't have any designs on greatness, but we're scrappy," he said of his first-year team.
His pitcher, Marshall Robers (Loyola), drove back from the ocean for the game.
Lucky for Pikesville he did, because he threw five innings of two-hit ball before being relieved in the sixth inning, when he gave up a lead-off walk and a double.
The6-foot, 190-pound senior right-hander, who is headed to Duke University next fall as a walk-on, had a 2-0 record with one save for Pikesville, a team that is 7-6. Robers was 7-4 over two seasons with LoyolaHigh.
The Reds fell to 10-5-1 after losing Thursday. First-time starting pitcher Brian Dunn (Mount St. Joseph) threw impressively, considering how little pitching he's done.
Dunn, normally a shortstop, throws harder than anyone on the Reds team -- somewhere in the low-80 mph range, but he hadn't started a game in a year. He gave up seven hits, five walks and five runs in five innings before Andy Young (Oakland Mills) finished up.
"I was getting behind in the count withmy curve and slider, so I had to come in with the fastball too much," Dunn said.
Dunn, who batted .303 with 16 RBI for St. Joe and wasan Honorable Mention All-Metro selection by The Sun, had pitched twice previously in short relief appearances with the Reds.
As a result of not having pitched, the Phelps Luck resident wasn't prepared tothrow a complete game.
"He did well," Thompson said.
