Right-hander Matt Hackman went the distance, tripled in a go-ahead run and scored the game-winner in a seven-run seventh-inning in Friends' comeback 10-6 victory at Boys' Latin yesterday.
The Quakers overcame a 5-1 second-inning deficit for the non-divisional Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference win, which raised their Division I-leading record to 7-2 and dropped Division II Boys' Latin to 6-3.
Tagged for six hits over the first two innings, Hackman (3-1) retired 12 of the next 13 batters before yielding Josh Floam's run-scoring single in the home seventh. Hackman (3-1) sparked the Quakers' seven-run, four-hit seventh, which saw Friends send 11 batters to the plate.
Trailing 5-3 entering the final inning, Friends tied the game on a throwing error during a double-steal called by coach Tom Randall, followed by Brett Benjamin's RBI single.
Lakers starter Alan Waring (3-1) struck out nine, walked 10 and yielded seven hits before serving up a fastball to Hackman and later being replaced by Nick Allen.
"I was reaching for the pitches earlier, but I stood closer to the plate and drove an inside fastball to right-center," said Hackman, who was 0-for-2 with a walk in previous trips to the plate. Pitching, Hackman struck out six, walked one and allowed nine hits.
"I stopped throwing fastballs, went to the off-speed stuff," he said. "They had problems with that."
Ryan Wilner started things for Boys' Latin in the first inning with a put-out and two assists defensively. At the plate he had an RBI double that led to a 3-0 lead.
Wilner's shot to the gap in right-center scored Ryan Fisher, who had singled. Floam's two-run double over the right-fielder's outstretched glove made it 3-0.
Friends got Omar Khan's second-inning RBI single, but the Lakers answered in the home second with consecutive run-scoring singles by Fisher. Friends scored two runs with two outs in the fourth on an error and James Flinn's bases-loaded walk.
"We had them where we wanted them, controlled the game, had the momentum," Wilner said. "But we couldn't make the plays in the last inning. We fell apart."
Pub Date: 4/23/98
