Following a brief respite for the July 4 holiday that marks the traditional midway point of the Charles and St. Mary's County Baseball League season, the La Plata Twins picked up precisely where they left off before the break by upending Western Charles 10-5 on Sunday afternoon at Rainbow Construction Field.
La Plata (7-2) had downed Western Charles 8-4 three weeks earlier when the two teams met on a very sunny, hot afternoon at Lackey High School and the Twins opened this occasion as if they were going to cruise to another lopsided tally. La Plata scored two runs on three hits in the top of the first before two base running mistakes cost them at least another run.
Western Charles, which has been the measuring stick for CHASM success through the early stages of this decade before finally relinquishing the crown last summer to St. Mary's Door, responded with two runs on one hit in the bottom of the first against Twins' ace Gabe Multumyr. Tyler Summers led off with single and scored on a sacrifice fly to center and Multumyr actually hit three Natty Bohs batters, the last of which forced in a run.
Neither team scored again until the fifth, however, and that set off a chain reaction of scoring over the late innings. Western Charles chased Multumyr by getting a run on two hits in the fifth, but relievers Camden Cooke and Andrew Leginze would control the last three innings and the Twins would provide ample run support late.
"I think we jumped out on them early and then we kind of let off the gas a little," said Cooke, who also plays for the La Plata Post 82 Legion team currently competing in the Frank Riley District Tournament. "We came up with some runs late and it was great to pull away at the end. But there is a lot of tough competition in that league and you can't afford to let up at all."
La Plata regained the lead in the top of the sixth by scoring three runs on three hits and two walks with Nate Michael delivering a two-run single to right for a 5-3 lead. But Western Charles responded immediately in the bottom of the inning when Summers belted a two-run homer to left center.
La Plata, however, had a much bigger response in the top of the seventh. Leginze broke the deadlock with a two-run blast of his own and later Jacob Sweeny drove in a run with a single and Michael virtually sealed the verdict with a two-run single to left. Leginze then tossed a scoreless seventh in a non-save situation for the Twins.
"This is one of the younger teams in the league and I think a lot of the guys on the team really look up to me," said Leginze, a rising senior at Salem College in West Virginia. "It felt good to be able to come up and deliver like that at the plate. Then, I love having the ball for the last inning. I had a very good junior year at Salem and I'm hoping to be even better my senior season."
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