The Hagerstown and Frederick baseball rivalry has been an entertaining one for the past few decades as they have taken turns getting the better of one another on a yearly basis. And with the recent changes in region 20 conference play, spectators and teams alike get two bites at the apple now that they play each other twice a season. The first matchup on April Fool's Day (April 1^st) at Frederick was yet another instant classic.

In the first game of the doubleheader, the Cougars jumped out to a 4-0 lead through the first 2 innings, fueled by a pair of homeruns by leadoff hitter, Cole Swinimer, and 5-hole third baseman, Luis Perez Alfaro. But the Hawks quickly fought back with a few clutch singles of their own by sophomores, Isaac Grove and Griffin Lowman, to even it up 4-4 in the 3^rd. After FCC added another run via a sacrifice fly, freshman phenom, Quinn Illig, added an RBI single along with some savvy baserunning later in the inning by stealing home to put the Hawks up 6-5 in the 4^th. They added another insurance run on a Kaden Jackson sac fly in the top of the 7^th, but that's when the wheels fell off as a few costly walks, some timely hits, and an error led to the Cougars scoring 4 in the bottom half of the inning and walking off the Hawks in painful fashion.

In the second act, it was a pitcher's duel through the first 4 innings as Freshman Virginia Tech transfer, Andrew Kerns, and FCC's Adam Horst kept the game dead locked at 0-0. The Hawks broke the game open with a 3-run 5th inning on the coattails of Kyle Lore's 2-out, bases loaded single. The score then remained unchanged until the bottom of the 6^th when a familiar feeling started to set in as the Hawks allowed the bases to become juiced with no outs due to 3 straight walks. FCC's Jacob Downey then singled, scoring 2, followed by Will Gisriel's triple which cleared the bases. The Cougars then added another sac fly which yielded a 6-spot when they needed it most. With the score 6-3 and only 3 outs remaining for the Hawks, it was simply too much to overcome as they went 3 up and 3 down to end the game via the same score.

Although the final scores were not what they had hoped for, HCC played a ranked NJCAA opponent extremely tough and had them on the ropes in both games in their own stadium. They look forward to avenging these losses in the rematch back at home on Tuesday, April 8^th. But first, they are slated to take on the Raptors of Montgomery College in another MDJUCO, region 20 doubleheader this Saturday, April 5^th at 12/2:30PM at Hawks Baseball Field. Please consider coming out and showing your support. GO HAWKS!!

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