Cardinals Play #1 Frederick Close

This weekend would see the Cardinals best pitching/defensive outputs of the season against number 1 team in the region, and 2^nd best in terms of runs scored. Mason Pfeifer and Evan Hassinger would throw dueling complete games in the first contest. Hassinger and Frederick would get the best of the Cardinals, as he would take a no-hitter into the sixth inning before it was broken up by a Damir Simon base hit. Mason Pfeifer would go the complete 6 innings for Cardinals, striking out 5. The cougars would have a 4 run third inning to open the scoring and keep the game out of reach. Pfeifer would allow just one run outside of that blowup third inning, but the Cardinals offense couldn't get it going to turn Pfeifer's efforts into a win.

Game 2 the Cardinal bats would wake up as they'd out hit the cougars 10-8 but couldn't out score them falling 5-4 in a back-and-forth game. Lucas Livingston would get the start on the mound for Catonsville, going 5 strong innings, allowing just 2 runs with 9 strikeouts.  A solo homer in the bottom of the first would open the scoring, and the score would remain 1-0 until the bottom of the 4^th for another Frederick solo HR. These would be the only runs allowed by Livingston as he would throw his best outing of the year, and would keep the Cardinals in the contest. In the top of the fifth inning, AJ Perry would tie the game with a 2 RBI single scoring Michael Payne and Wyatt Bickers.  Livingston would end his outing with a strong bottom of the fifth inning keeping the game tied at 2. The Cardinals would take the lead in their next set of at bats, with a John Moreno SAC Fly to score Nick Midili. Frederick would answer in the bottom half of the sixth with Livingston out of the game. The Cougars would put up a three spot to take their lead to 5-3 going into the final inning. Skylar Jersey would lead off the top of the seventh with a solo HR  to bring his season total to 10. Frederick would get the next three outs and the save for the doubleheader sweep to top the Cardinals 5-4 despite their great effort.

This was the last weekend series of the season, as the Cardinals will close their season Tuesday 5/5 with a road doubleheader against Chesapeake College.