The back end of last week became busy for local high-school baseball teams, with a couple of games each for some squads, while most others played at least one contest.
Through most of the week, no games were played because of consistent rain and wet fields.
The McLean Highlanders (5-5, 2-2) played twice, losing tough-luck one-run Liberty District home contests to the Langley Saxons, 3-2, on Friday night, then to the Herndon Hornets, 2-1, in extra innings Saturday afternoon.
Also playing twice were the Flint Hill Huskies (2-7, 2-1), sweeping a doubleheader from St. James, 10-0 and 16-2, for their first victories of the season in the conference games.
Playing once each were the Madison Warhawks (6-1 home win over Centreville in a Concorde District clash), the Marshall Statesmen (9-4 road extra-inning win over the Yorktown Patriots in Liberty action), the Oakton Cougars (2-0 road loss to South Lakes in Concorde action) and the Potomac School Panthers (8-7 home win against Sidwell Friends in eight innings).
* McLean's pitching was strong in the two losses, but errors, untimely walks, a hit batter and tough luck played a role in both losses. Aidan Carey and Alex Gonzalez started the games for McLean. Carey pitched seven innings and fanned 11 against Herndon in the 10-inning contest. He did not allow an earned run or walk a batter. James Harrington had a hit and an RBI for McLean.
Ethan Ball hit a solo homer against Langley and Ryan Soong had two hits.
* For Langley (5-3, 1-0) Nick Newburn started and allowed four hits and one earned run in six innings, with no walks and seven strikeouts against McLean. Gary Ahrens pitched one inning with three Ks and allowed a hit.
With the bat for Langley, James Lee doubled and had an RBI and Owen Lochhead had an RBI.
* Marshall (3-6, 2-1) scored five runs in the top of the eighth inning for its win. Vince Salvo was the winning pitcher in relief and had two hits and two RBI. Dylan Miller had three hits with a double, Cal Alexander and Will Thomas each had two hits, and Will Schroen doubled. Marshall had 10 hits.
On the mound for Marshall, lefty Nathan Lake started and pitched five strong innings of three-hit ball with 10 strikeouts. He allowed one earned run. Salvo fanned five in three frames, allowing one hit with no runs or walks.
* For Madison (6-3, 1-0) in its win, Cael Yates threw a complete game to get the win, and his older brother Cord Yates had three hits and an RBI.
Cael Yates struck out six, allowed just two hits and one earned run, while throwing 87 pitches.
Also with the bat for Madison, Carter Tuft had two RBI singles and Henry Novario had an RBI double, an run-scoring singles and another single.
* For Flint Hill in its doubleheader sweep of St. James, Vincenzo Fiorino and Aidan Ryan were the winning and starting pitchers in games stopped after five innings because of the 10-run rule. Fiorino threw all five shutout innings, allowing one hit, striking out 11 and having no walks. Ryan went three innings in his outing.
With the bats in the wins, Sebastian Gratacos had three hits and Jake Blazejowski two hits and four RBI in the 10-0 contest, with Fiorino having two hits and four RBI, Ben Meeks two doubles and Connor Ryan two hits in the 16-2 victory.
* For Potomac School (6-3, 4-0) in its win over Sidwell, Jason Seeber had two hits and three RBI and doubled home the walkoff game-winning run in the last of the eighth inning. Jackson Wiley had a hit and two RBI and Wyatt Pence had a hit and an RBI.
