Behind solid pitching outings from junior Dan Lawler and senior Bill Boyle, the Chantilly High baseball team defeated local rival Centreville, 4-1, in the Concorde District game played on April 20 at Chantilly.
Lawler, who started for the Chargers, allowed one run - a second inning solo home run by Wildcat senior Connor Bach - over four innings of work in the non-decision outing. He scattered six hits, struck out three and walked one.
“He had some runners on base, but he got out of those innings,” said Chantilly coach Kevin Ford. “He really did a good job.”
Picking up the win for Chantilly was Boyle, who allowed four hits while striking out five and walking none in three scoreless innings of relief.
“He just threw strikes,” said Ford. “He’s not afraid to pitch inside. He made some real good pitches to get third called strikes. He just mixed it up and looked confident out there.”
Boyle, who recently committed to playing baseball next school year at Mary Washington University in Fredericksburg, is 3-1 this spring with an impressive 2.72 earned run average. He has struck out 37 batters over 28-1/3 innings.
Chantilly’s Matt DeWitt hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning to tie the game at 1-1. It was the second homer of the season for DeWitt, a senior catcher and the Chargers’ lone returning starter back from last year’s team.
<b>DEWITT</b>, Chantilly’s clean-up hitter, is hitting around .400. A year ago as the Chargers’ No. 4 hitter, DeWitt knocked out seven home runs and batted .257 on the season. Ford said DeWitt is a better hitter this spring.
“This year he’s getting good solid swings and a lot more base hits,” said Ford.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Chantilly batted around and scored three runs to break the 1-1 tie and take control of the game.
Highlights of the inning included a home run from Wes Kerbuski and a well-struck, bases-loaded sacrifice fly off the bat of Ben Langford.
Chantilly had five hits on the night, two of them coming from Jamie Danehower. Other contributions came from Adam Fridy (2 walks) and Sam Zimmerman (single).
Centreville pitcher Ryan Ashooh recorded 10 strikeouts.
Three days later, Chantilly (6-7) struggled in a 14-5 district home loss to Westfield last Friday. The Chargers outhit the Bulldogs, 12 to 11, but Chantilly pitchers walked nine batters and the Chargers’ defense committed three errors.
Good hitting games for Chantilly came from Fridy (4 hits, including a double), Connor Major (double) and Kerbuski (2 hits). Other players getting hits were Sonny Romine, DeWitt, Langford, Zimmerman and Mike Edwards. Brad Caslavka had a sacrifice fly.
Chantilly was scheduled to play district games this week at Herndon (Tuesday, April 27) and at home versus Robinson this Friday night, April 30 at 6:30.