Beal, Frazier Lead Stallions over Bruins

After striking out in his first two at-bats of the night against Lake Braddock’s Kenny Towns Tuesday, South County shortstop Tyler Frazier came to the plate in a 5-5 game in the bottom of the fifth. With Michael Church now on the mound in place of Towns, Frazier had a plan in mind as he stepped into the box.

“I was talking to Coach [Matt] Fitzgerald in the dugout, and he was just like, ‘Frazier, you’re going to get a fastball. You’ve just got to shorten up and be quick to the ball.’ I just stayed down and stroked it up the middle. After seeing Towns, [the next guy] is not going to seem fast.”

Frazier belted a double driving in Luke Bondurant to put the Stallions up 6-5. South County would score three more in the fifth before Frazier put the game out of reach with a three-run homer in the sixth, as the Stallions picked up a huge 12-5 win over Lake Braddock.

“[Towns] is a quality kid, he’s a good pitcher,” South County Coach Mark Luther said. “He’s going to [the University of Virginia] to play baseball, but we think that we’ve got a pretty good approach and that we’ll get you eventually.”

South County had a Division I-bound pitcher of its own on the mound, with Evan Beal, who will join the University of South Carolina this fall, making his first start of the season. Beal had trouble commanding his fastball early, and got into trouble in the first inning. After hitting Lake Braddock second baseman Alex Gransback to start the game, Beal walked Thomas Rogers and gave up an RBI single to his counterpart Towns, as the Bruins struck first. Andrew Weidinger followed with an RBI single of his own that caromed off of second base, and Ryan Owens plated the Bruins’ third run of the first with a looping line drive to right field.

Beal settled down and struck out Michael Quinteros and Garrett Driscoll to keep the damage at three after the first. He then sent down nine of the next 10 Lake Braddock hitters and let his offense go to work.

“I didn’t have my best stuff,” Beal admitted. “It’s definitely good for the mind, you get a win like this against this good team. I still went out there and battled and gave it all I had.”

What Beal did have across his 5.2 innings was a sharp breaking ball. When his fastball abandoned him early, he was able to count on the slider to get ahead in the count.

“I can spin it in there really well with a lot of confidence,” he said. “When I’m not spotting my fastball, I feel I can throw my breaking ball for a strike every time.”

Towns shut down the Stallions early, surrendering just one hit while striking out five in the first three innings. South County started to get to him in the fourth after a single by Mike Perez and walks to Kyle Fairbanks and Cameron Thompson. Towns then uncorked a wild pitch to bring the Stallions within a run, and a Mike Egbert sacrifice fly tied the game at three.

Michael Church relieved Towns and walked the first batter he faced. He then induced what looked like an inning-ending grounder off the bat of Drew Rector, but an error allowed two runs to score. Lake Braddock would tie the game in the fifth highlighted by a Ryan Owens RBI double, before the Stallions scored seven runs in their last two times at bat.

Beal picked up the win, allowing five earned runs on six hits and four walks with seven strikeouts, needing 120 pitches to get through his 5.2 innings. Towns surrendered four runs, two earned, on two hits and two walks with six strikeouts while Church picked up the loss in relief. Frazier finished the game 2-for-4 with a homer and four RBI, and Lake Braddock’s Ryan Owens went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI.

South County will next play at Woodson on Friday, while Lake Braddock returns home to play Annandale.