Baseball: Warhawks Capitalize on Cougar Errors

After two straight Liberty District losses, Madison baseball snapped its streak of bad luck with a 10-5 win in a nondistrict game against Oakton High on Saturday.  

Though the Warhawks had a 4-0 disadvantage after the Cougars went on a scoring spree in the second, they answered in the bottom of the inning with three runs of their own. 

With Matt Livingston and Tim Davis on first and third after a double and single, respectively, Dan Powers hit an RBI single to post the Warhawks' first run of the game. Evan Jacquez and Ben Socher each followed with RBI singles to put the Warhawks at a one-run deficit heading into the third inning. 

"I told them, 'You have to ignite yourself. Nobody's going to do it for you,'" Coach Mark Gjormand said. "We had some good at bats. Livingston got it started then once we got two or three runs back, I felt we would be able to do some stuff."

The Warhawks added three more runs in the third inning, which started with a single from Davis to knock in two runs. During the next at-bat, Davis advanced to second base on a wild pitch then stole third base. In an attempt to catch him stealing, the Cougars overthrew the ball to allow Davis to score the Warhawks' sixth run of the game, which ended up being the game-winner.

But the Warhawks weren't yet done scoring. They added three more in the fourth inning on two errors. After the Cougars added their last run of the game in the top of the fifth, the Warhawks again scored on an error to tally their final run of the game for a 10-5 final score.

"Today was a big win for us because, for one, it's Oakton and that's a rivalry," Gjormand said. "... Oakton played really well last night and got a big win, so I was worried about this game because I thought we might have a little bit of a hangover from last night. But I also thought we could put up double-digits, I really did."

The Warhawks snapped a two-game losing streak with its win Saturday. On Friday, they lost to Stone Bridge — the No. 1 team in the Liberty District — in the bottom of the seventh after tying the game at 2-2 in the top of the inning. 

"I told the kids this was probably going to be the hardest test we've had in a long time to come back after that loss last night," Gjormand said. "So I'm just really proud of them."

Nate Favero started on the mound for the Warhawks on Saturday, pitching three strikeouts and five walks in four innings. He gave up four hits. Andy McGuire and Davis combined for five strikeouts and two walks while giving up no hits in the last three innings. 

"The pitching came together once we settled down," Gjormand said. "Nate didn't have his best stuff today, but he battled. I thought that Andy came in and looked sharp and Timmy came in to finish it off."

With four games left in the regular season, the Warhawks rank fourth — a tie with Marshall — in the Liberty District. 

The Warhawks (5-5 Liberty) will travel to South Lakes (2-7) on Tuesday for their first of four district matchups.