The same winning formula for five-straight games helped the Yorktown Patriots clinch first place in the Liberty District regular season baseball standings with a 10-1 record and one game to play when the week began.
By finishing first, Yorktown will be the top seed in the upcoming district tournament and has earned an automatic berth to play in the 6D North Region tourney.
Yorktown (13-5 overall) defeated the visiting Herndon Hornets, 7-2, May 5 in high-school action for its fifth win in a row. In all five contests, the Patriots allowed no more than two runs in any game, with one shutout.
At the same time, Yorktown has played strong defense and scored either five or seven runs in the games.
Yorktown defeated the host McLean Highlanders, 5-2, in another important district game last week.
“We are playing well and we keep doing what we need to do to win games,” Yorktown coach John Skaggs said.
Yorktown’s other three victories of its winning streak were 5-1 over Langley, 7-2 against Washington-Liberty and a 7-0 blanking of Wakefield.
In the win over Herndon, John Sharkey and James Pilot combined on the mound for the win. Sharkey started and pitched four innings and Pilot worked the final three, with his fastball reaching 92 mph, according to Skaggs, to get the win in relief.
With the bat in the win, Bradley Labant had a two-run single, Trevor McAndrews had three hits with an RBI double and later scored on a wild pitch, Tyler Woodward had a sacrifice fly, Owen Woodward doubled and Jack Rucker and Isaac Hobbs had RBI groundouts.
McAndrews has been one of Yorktown’s top hitters all season and has seven home runs. He batted just .215 last season.
“I think Trevor has learned this season he doesn’t have to pull everything and is relaxed more at the plate,” Skaggs said.
McAndrews will play college baseball at Emory University.
In Yorktown’s win over McLean, Rucker started, threw five innings with five strikeouts, one walk and allowed one earned run to earn the win.
Labant and McAndrews each had two hits, Kyle Langley homered and had two RBI, Ryan Powers tripled and had two of the team’s six stolen bases, Owen Woodward had a hit and Ben Stern had a sacrifice fly.
Yorktown’s lone district loss was to second-place Marshall. The teams were scheduled to play this week.
NOTES: In its last 23 district games this season and last, Yorktown has a 20-3 record . . . Skaggs is in his ninth year as Yorktown’s coach and this spring was the team’s initial first-place finish in the regular season under his helm. Yorktown has won two district tournaments under Skaggs and played in other Liberty tourney championship games, including last season. . . Tyler Woodward sang the National Anthem before the game against Herndon in an impromptu performance.
