Observers of The National Pastime from Walt Whitman (“Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our close rooms . . . . The game of ball is glorious”) to George Carlin (“Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game”) have rhapsodized about the game and its ties to spring, “the season of new life” in Carlin’s words (contrasting it with football, which “begins in the fall, when everything’s dying”). So it was especially fitting that, just a day after the Vernal Equinox and with the blossoms of the cherry trees bursting with color, the Whitman Vikings opened their highly-anticipated 2012 campaign in the Town of Poolesville, located in the heart of Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve.

And the 23-mile trip out River Road and toward White’s Ferry proved to be a happy spring journey as the Vikes blanked the homestanding Falcons, 7-0, behind the pitching of Ryan McGill, hitting of Pat Hisle, and fielding of Drew Aherne. Poolesville, coming off a 10-7 season, proved to be a tough foe, and the game was closer than the final score indicated. Whitman left the bases loaded (on walks) in the first and stranded two more in the second. Meanwhile, Aherne did his finest James Dionne imitation in CF in the bottom of the third, first with a fine running catch and then with a perfect relay throw to SS Michael Flack, who pivoted and gunned out a Poolesville hitter trying to stretch a double into a three bagger, with Andrew Castagnetti applying the tag expertly at the hot corner.

Whitman finally broke the scoreless deadlock in the top of the fourth, as McGill lined a single to center and came around on a Hisle triple – the second of the Gonzaga transfer’s three hits in a flawless day at the plate. Then in the bottom half of the inning, Whitman’s defense preserved the narrow margin, leaving Falcons at second and third as Sam Avayou short hopped a sharp grounder while pulled in at second and Aherne followed with a diving grab in short center. Buoyed by the heroic glovework, the Vikings doubled their lead in the fifth as a Mike Yang hit and misplay by the right fielder plated Aherne. Meanwhile, McGill settled into a groove, retiring the side in order in the bottom of the fifth and finishing with six scoreless frames.

The Vikings doubled their lead in the sixth as Hisle roped a single, Avayou scored him with an infield hit, and Flack mashed a long RBI double. Three more runs crossed in the seventh on singles by McGill and Castagnetti, a bases-loaded walk to catcher and leadoff hitter Josh Biel, and a Flack sac fly that brought in Dylan Hayes, who had drawn a walk in a pinch-hitting role while evoking reminders of the days before fancy batting gloves ruled the diamonds (Vlad Guerrero and Jorge Posada being other notable members of the gloveless batting club). Hisle then toed the rubber in the bottom of the seventh, retiring Poolesville 1-2-3 to complete the shutout and seal a well-earned and long-awaited “W” for McGill, who missed almost all of the 2011 season with an ankle injury.

A century and a half ago, Poolesville was the venue of frequent incursions by Confederate forces who crossed the nearby Potomac, and many Union troops stationed in the town – including the only U.S. Senator ever lost in battle – were killed in the Battle of Ball’s Bluff (a fitting enough name) in late 1861 just across the river in Virginia. This time around, the Viking invaders came from the opposite direction and, while doing nothing to disturb the town’s peace and tranquility, still left an unmistakable imprint with their bats, gloves, and arms. Having vanquished the Falcons, Whitman could look forward to its home opener two days later against Blair.

(Thanks to Dave Castagnetti, Mark Rasch, and Howard Flack for their emails and texts, and in particular to Jacob Rasch for his assiduous game reporting. All errors of commission or omission are the writer’s alone.)

On a late March afternoon that felt more like late May, the Whitman Vikings ran their record to 2-0 with an 8-2 rout of the Blair Blazers in front of a large home opener crowd and backed by their new scoreboard. Michael Flack and Mike West combined on a two-hitter, allowing only solo unearned runs in the first and sixth. While the Whitman bats remained a bit somnolent in the early going of the campaign, Andrew Castagnetti had his second straight two-hit game, stroking a single and double. Ryan McGill also had a two-bagger and Michael Flack, Josh Biel, and Sam Avayou added a single apiece.

But the offensive story was more about taking advantage of a dozen Blazer free passes and a liberal sprinkling of wild pitches and passed balls. After Blair took a 1-0 lead in the first, and Whitman wasted a first and third, one-out opportunity, the home team tallied two in the second on walks to Mike Yang (his first of three) and McGill, a Castagnetti sacrifice bunt, Dan Duffy walk, base-loaded wild pitch, and Pat Hisle RBI groundout (dropping his average to .750). Flack followed a perfect second by again retiring the side in order in the third, and Whitman scored two more in the bottom half on an error, two walks, two wild pitches, and Castagnetti’s RBI double. The fourth was a near repeat of the prior two stanzas – an easy top half for Flack, and two more tallies for the Vikings as Flack drove in Avayou and then came around on a Drew Aherne sac fly.

Flack finished his strong showing with a 1-2-3 fifth, two going down on strikes, and though Whitman wasted a bases loaded opportunity to blow it open in the bottom of that inning, West came on to pitch a solid final two frames, yielding just that second unearned run. Whitman added a final two-spot in the sixth on an error, McGill’s long double, and back to back wild pitches.

If something short of an artistic masterpiece, the win offered more evidence of the Vikings’ strengths on the mound and in the field. The team ERA remains a perfect 0.00, and for the second straight game Whitman backed their strong hurlers with solid D while taking advantage of opposition miscues. Up next for the Vikings: a home contest against Damascus, followed by a trip to Sherwood and a chance to revenge last season’s Senior Night loss.

0.00. If the decimal point moved one spot to the left, it would be cause for great concern – a batting average 200 points below the Mendoza Line, a winless team record. But never have g00se eggs looked so g00d as where they signify that, through 21 innings thus far in the 2012 campaign, the elite Whitman Vikings’ pitchers have yet to allow a solitary earned run.

Southpaw Ryan McGill extended his record to 2-0 with six innings of virtuoso three-hit ball utilizing an amalgam of fastballs, curves and changeups, and Gabe Steinberg made his season debut with a perfect seventh frame, as the Vikes shut out the visiting Damascus Hornets, 5-0, on a clear but cool day in Bethesda. The contest wrapped in a succinct 1:45 – a far cry from the 15-9 sh00tout win in Damascus last year, when Steinberg gutted out an arduous complete game victory and Dan Duffy blasted two round trippers. The big first sacker again flourished against Hornets’ pitching, making his first hit of the season a memorable one – a monumental blast to dead center in the second that plated the first two runs of the contest, with pinch runner Jacob Rasch sauntering home ahead of Duffy.

Those two tallies proved more than enough for the McGill-Steinberg combo, but the Vikings buttressed their lead in the bottom of the fourth, allaying any concerns of a Damascus comeback. Mike Yang scored on a line drive shot to center off the bat of Andrew Castagnetti, AC stole second and eventually reached the dish on a nice slide, and Josh Biel rapped a single to left that brought in Pat Hisle with the fifth and final run. While well short of a scoring explosion, it proved more than enough given the strong hurling and adept defense that included a diving grab by SS Michael Flack. Meanwhile, the porous Hornets stung themselves with erratic play in the field, including ill-timed miscues in both the second and fourth.

At 3-0, the Vikings are off to an auspicious start looking ahead to their toughest test of the season to date – a visit to perennial powerhouse Sherwood and a chance to finish Week 2 with an unblemished mark and further substantiate the high preseason expectations.

There have been 272 in Major League history, from George Bradley’s with the St. Louis Brown Stockings in 1876 to Ervin Santana of the Angels last July. Nolan Ryan threw seven, Sandy Koufax four, Bob Feller three, and Dock Ellis one in 1970 while on acid. And at 5:03 pm on Thursday, March 29, 2012 at Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring, MD, Michael Flack reached the same pinnacle with a 92-pitch masterpiece, yielding only a sixth-inning walk and fanning fourteen in a 2-0 no-no over the Warriors.

While there likely will be no recorded history of the milestone – unlike the still-active Vin Scully’s call of Koufax’s first one exactly fifty years ago this summer, http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=9752592&m=9755004, those in attendance will remember it when they are old and grey (some already having reached that point). The bottom of seven featured Flack’s 13th and 14th Ks, followed by a grounder that 3B Andrew Castagnetti flipped across the diamond to Ryan McGill. Soon after the ball lodged in McGill’s glove, catcher Josh Biel did his finest Yogi Berra imitation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PerfectLarsen.jpg, leaping into the arms of his battery mate as the Whitman celebration began. Flack’s elated teammates showered him with adulation, and the small coterie of Vikings’ fans in the stands, who had remained largely silent as the no-hitter unfolded for fear of jinxing the effort, exhaled almost as one.
The game sped by in just over an hour and a half, as Sherwood’s strong sophomore hurler twirled an impressive two-hitter, giving up only a Drew Aherne single in the second and a Flack double in the fourth. While Whitman’s bats were largely dormant, the Vikes played a nice game of “small ball” in tallying their two runs. Aherne came around on a Mike Yang grounder and a McGill sacrifice fly to center. Then in the sixth, Biel manufactured an insurance run on a walk (his second of the game and seventh of the young season), steal, and wild pitch, crossing the plate on another clutch sac fly, this one off the bat of Sam Avayou.

While only one-third of the Sherwood hitters even managed to put the ball in play, when they did the Vikings’ defense was again impeccable, led by Castagnetti at third, Pat Hisle at short, Avayou at second, and McGill at first. Flack took care of the rest, mixing an array of breaking pitches with a riding fastball and leaving the Warriors thoroughly befuddled at the plate. He struck out the side in the first and fifth, and fanned six in a row at one point and four straight at another juncture.

Almost lost in the hoopla was the fact that the pitching gem kept the Vikings’ ERA at a perfect 0.00 through four games and 28 innings of work. Flack and McGill are each 2-0 on the season, with several other talented arms limited to spot duty thus far though likely to get work during the twin-bill against rivals WJ and BCC on Monday, April 2. But for this day, the story was Flack’s dominance. As Koufax said when asked about one of his no-hitters, “You've got to be lucky, but if you have good stuff, it's easier to be lucky."

When “Mr. Cub” Ernie Banks uttered his immortal line "It's a great day for a ball game; let's play two!" expressing his love for the sport and readiness to play a doubleheader at any time, little did he know that by the early 21st century the twin bill would become an anachronism at the Major League level. But on April 2, neighborhood and 4A South rivals Walt Whitman, Walter Johnson, and Bethesda-Chevy Chase took it to the next level on a crisp but clear day at Whitman, playing a round robin competition before a week of spring break inactivity. And when the dust settled some seven and a half hours after WJ and BCC started Game 1, Whitman had emerged victorious twice, throttling WJ 14-4 and edging the Barons 6-5, thereby bringing its overall mark to a perfect 6-0.

Things started inauspiciously for the Vikings against the 4-1 Wildcats, who were coming off an exciting walk-off win against BCC. With Mike West making his first start of the campaign after twirling two strong innings in relief against Blair, the team appeared lethargic if not somnambulant, spotting WJ three in the top of the first, with the lowlights including a failure to cover first on a routine bunt and a wild throw back to the mound that plated a run.

But the Vikings were resilient in the face of their first deficit of the season. Ryan McGill cut the WJ lead to one in the bottom of the first with a long triple to left, scoring Michael Flack and Drew Aherne. Then Dan Duffy kissed one goodbye in the second, blasting a pitch by the Wildcats’ ace well over the fence in left for his second round tripper of the season, with Mike Yang scoring ahead of him, and Whitman had the lead for good. Sam Avayou laced a single to score Pat Hisle to bring the score to 5-3 after two, and the Vikings never looked back.

West settled into a nice groove, throwing two scoreless frames as Whitman padded its lead when Josh Biel drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the third. And then, after West gave up an innocuous run in his final stanza, the home team exploded for five in the bottom of the fourth and the rout was on. Aherne tripled in Flack and scored on an error, and Andrew Castagnetti smashed the team’s third three bagger of the day to drive in McGill before crossing home himself on a wild pitch. Hisle capped the half inning with a double that plated Duffy and it was 11-4 just like that.
Gabe Steinberg relieved West to start the fifth and proceeded to retire all six batters he faced, two on strikeouts, making it nine up, nine down on the season for the junior. As the aroma of Howard Flack’s barbecue wafted up the third base line, it was clear that the Whitman nine (and those in the dugout) were hungry for more than a win and had no desire to prolong things any longer than necessary. A Castagnetti double and Yang single brought two more across in the fifth, and then an array of pinch hitters delivered the knockout punch in the bottom of six. With one out, Jared Berul reached on an HBP, moved to second on a walk to Nick Bode, and Jacob Rasch’s sharp grounder to short produced an E6/E4 combo, with Berul scoring the run that invoked the mercy rule and ended the contest. Rasch, with a tormented history of being stranded in the on deck circle in similar situations in 2011, was able to stride off this time in victory after crossing first.

Following the aforementioned tasty BBQ feast in between games, Whitman assumed the role of visitor in the nightcap. Hisle took the hill for the first time since a perfect seventh inning in the opener at Poolesville, and worked out of a second and third situation in the first. In the top of the second, McGill doubled to left and scored the first run on a wild throw. Yang slapped a two bagger down the line in left, plating Castagnetti, and scored in turn on a Duffy single. A Biel single and balk brought Duffy home for a 4-0 Whitman lead. Hisle sailed through the second, striking out two, and K’d another in the third on a knee-buckling breaking pitch before running into some trouble as a walk, hit batter, and two singles halved the Vikings’ lead.

Alex Beckel made his debut in the fourth and retired the Barons in order, with Biel making a nice grab of a high popup behind the plate and Aherne chasing down a drive in deep center. Whitman added two more in the fifth on a Flack walk and steal, Aherne sac bunt, and McGill single, followed by another Yang double down the left field line. Beckel yielded three singles in the bottom half of the frame, but Biel nullified a runner inexplicably trying to steal third with a three-run deficit, as Castagnetti slapped a quick tag down to end the stanza. After Hisle was out trying to stretch a double, BCC made things interesting in the bottom of the sixth. Beckel finished a solid outing by giving way to McGill with two on and one out, and a walk and two singles later, it was a 6-5 contest. With the Whitman crowd exhorting him to close the door, the senior southpaw came up big in the clutch, fanning the Barons’ cleanup hitter with the sacks filled to preserve the precarious lead.

Then in the bottom of the seventh, after McGill gave up a leadoff single, it was Flack time. In the tradition of Rivera, Sutter, Hoffman, and Eckersley, and coming off his no-hitter four days earlier at Sherwood, the staff ace needed only ten pitches to end any BCC hopes for a comeback win. The first hitter whiffed at an aspirin tablet, and after handling a comebacker for out number two, Flack used a nasty slider for a final strikeout, preserving the victory for Hisle and earning his first save to go with two wins and 24 Ks in 13 innings YTD.

On the day, Yang, McGill, and Aherne had three hits apiece, Castagnetti added two extra-base hits, and Duffy contributed his monster homer. Flack was hitless at the dish but walked four times, Avayou had a key RBI, and Biel coaxed three more free passes for ten on the season. Hisle was 1-2 in each game and showed deft glove work on the mound to accompany his solid hurling. Steinberg remained perfect on the season, West gained his first win of 2012, and Beckel demonstrated the depth of the pitching staff, with sidewinders Noah Klotz and Connor Bissell waiting in reserve. Ben Page manned right field for several innings, and as noted above, several others combined to close out WJ in the opener.

So with one more practice before the squad scattered to college visits, short vacations, and other spring break pastimes, the coaches and 21-man roster could look back at their first half dozen games with a sense of accomplishment at a record that remains spotless – with Gaithersburg and QO looming when play resumes after a nine-day hiatus.

Johnny Vander Meer can rest in peace. The Reds’ hurler, who died in 1997, was the lone major leaguer to toss two consecutive no-hitters, shutting down Boston and Brooklyn back to back in June 1938 (the latter in the first night game ever at Ebbets Field). Michael Flack nearly duplicated the feat on a cold, windy April night in Bethesda as Whitman bested longtime nemesis Gaithersburg, 8-2, to run its record on the season to 7-0 leading to a tilt at 7-1 Quince Orchard.

After a dominating performance against Sherwood in which the only opposing base runner reached on a walk, Flack held the Trojans hitless for six innings while fanning nine before a solid single up the middle leading off the seventh ended his bid for a repeat. (Technically, a perfect inning in relief against BCC came in between, but this was his first start since the earlier masterpiece.) A double that Mike Yang nearly snagged in left and groundout later, Flack exited to a nice ovation from the large and enthusiastic gathering that had braved the frigid weather (some wearing shorts). Gabe Steinberg wrapped things up briskly, sandwiching a popup and strikeout around an infield error that marked the first runner to reach on him all year.

Meanwhile, the Vikings chipped away against Gaithersburg sophomore Nick DeCarlo, himself the author of a recent no-hitter against Poolesville. Flack’s double down the line in left plated Sam Avayou, who had reached on an infield single, to give the home squad a 1-0 lead in the first, and a wild pitch following Drew Aherne’s first of three singles brought Flack home with the second run of the stanza. Gaithersburg halved the lead in the top of the fourth when the leadoff hitter struck out but beat Josh Biel’s throw to first after the pitch in the dirt skipped away. After a sacrifice and fielder’s choice, the runner came home on another wild pitch and it was a 2-1 affair.

But Whitman struck back in the bottom half of the frame on Aherne’s second safety, a stolen base, and Andrew Castagnetti’s RBI single. Then in the fifth, the Vikes kayoed the impressive DeCarlo. Josh Biel coaxed his eleventh walk of the campaign and Avayou blasted a triple to dead center to score him. After Flack was passed intentionally, Aherne grounded to third. The throw to the plate had Avayou dead to rights but the scrappy second sacker knocked the ball out of the catcher’s glove to make it 5-1. Flack and Aherne pulled off a perfect double steal and it was a five-run lead. Whitman added three more in the sixth as Dan Duffy singled, and after birthday boy and shortstop Pat Hisle was retired on a hard hit ball to left, Biel reached on an error. Following a wild pitch, Flack again got an intentional freebie, but Aherne ruined the strategy by ripping a two-run single to left – setting the stage for the drama in the top of the seventh.

While Flack fell just short of a duplicate no-no, with his latest pitching gem Whitman finally conquered a Gaithersburg squad that had sent them packing in the playoffs the past two seasons and three of the last four. And with cleanup hitter Aherne finding the stroke that had made him such a prolific hitter as a freshman in 2011, the Vikings had reason to feel good heading into the big road battle against the powerful QO Cougars.

“That’s how you win – pitching and defense.” Derek Jeter.

“Pitching is 80% of the game – and the other half is hitting and fielding.” Mickey Rivers.

Future Hall of Famer Jeter, and perhaps Rivers, would have loved the Whitman at Quince Orchard contest on a sunny Friday the 13th afternoon in North Potomac/Gaithersburg. The Vikings ran their record to 8-0, scoring twice in the top of the second and then turning the rest over to Ryan McGill’s left arm and calm demeanor on the hill and Pat Hisle’s fleet feet and flawless glove in right field, in edging the 8-2 QO Cougars, 2-1.

McGill declawed the Cougars, who had scored 31 runs in their previous game, limiting them to four hits and one unearned tally in running his record to 3-0 and keeping his ERA at a perfect 0.00. And Hisle’s afternoon in right included a running grab while racing to his left, a Roberto Clemente-like heave that nearly nailed the lone Cougar runner to cross home, and a sprint and throw to the bag at second that turned a sure double into a mere one-bagger at a key juncture of the game.

As in several earlier wins, the Whitman offense sputtered but did enough to support the stellar hurling. The first run in the second frame came courtesy of a leadoff single by cleanup hitter Drew Aherne, who took second on a wild throw by the shortstop, moved up as McGill beat out a perfect bunt, and came around on a fielder’s choice grounder off the stick of Andrew Castagnetti. Two batters later, Hisle lined a single to left and it was 2-0. After that, the bats cooled, producing only another single by Aherne (coming off a 3-for-4 outing against Gaithersburg) and a two-out triple in the seventh by Hisle. Despite some fine bunting that moved runners into scoring position in the fourth and sixth and the Hisle shot to right center in the final inning, no more Whitman runners came around.

But the two runs proved more than enough for McGill, who surrendered just the one run in the bottom of the third on a swinging bunt coupled with his own wild throw to first, a sac bunt, and a sac fly to right as the runner barely beat Hisle’s strong throw to catcher Josh Biel. The senior southpaw picked a runner off first in the fourth, struck out two in the fifth, and overcame leadoff singles in both the sixth (benefiting from Hisle’s great cutoff and throw) and seventh, mixing in a cutter and curve with his fastball and seemingly getting stronger as the game wore on. Fittingly enough, he wrapped it up by extending to snag a comebacker and tossing softly to Dan Duffy at first as the delirious Vikings mobbed him near the third base line and the blood pressure of several parents declined precipitously.

With pitching and defense in command, the game wrapped in a swift one hour and 25 minutes. And as the dejected Cougar fans headed to the exits, the Whitman faithful lingered while Coach Joe Cassidy and a few of his seniors patiently responded to the offerings of two local sports reporters. The Vikings had roughly 72 hours to relish their latest triumph before retaking the diamond for a Monday evening home game against rival Churchill.

The Whitman Vikings came in with an unblemished record following a big win at Quince Orchard. The Churchill Bulldogs came in with only two victories on the campaign but a desire to revenge a humbling home loss to Whitman last season and a sense of what was possible after shocking a powerful Sherwood squad in last year’s 4A playoffs. And on a balmy night in Bethesda, the visitors had the mojo, parlaying a four-run third inning into a 6-1 win that dropped the Vikings’ mark to 8-1.

Things began promisingly enough for Whitman. Starter Michael Flack struck out the side in the first, as three straight Bulldogs were called out on breaking balls, and then scored the first run of the contest after doubling to deep left and coming around on a throwing error. Flack added a fourth K in the second and, after a walk, first baseman Ryan McGill started a dazzling 3-6-1 twin killing with a diving stab going to his right.

But then the wheels came off the unbeaten season in the top of the third. All seemed under control as Flack fanned the first two hitters, but then the ace righty lost his command, hitting a batter and walking the next two to load the bases. Churchill tied it on a catcher’s interference call where the batter made contact with both the glove and mask of backstop Josh Biel, then took the lead for good when a routine grounder to first was mishandled. Back to back singles later, it was 4-1, and while the runs were all unearned, the damage was done before Flack fanned his seventh of the evening.

With a chance to cut into the lead, Whitman repeatedly failed to deliver in the clutch over the ensuing four innings – wasting a one-out double by Biel in the third and leadoff singles by Drew Aherne, Dan Duffy, and Flack in innings 4-6. Churchill loaded the bases in the fifth but shortstop Pat Hisle made a nice play charging a slow grounder and throwing to Biel at home for a force, and Flack finished his night with another strikeout. Gabe Steinberg had a 1-2-3 sixth but after Flack was stranded at third with one out in the bottom of the frame, the Bulldogs added two in the seventh on three walks, two wild pitches, and a single before Alex Beckel relieved Mike West and induced a popout on his first offering. Weiss then ended with a flourish, getting pinch hitter Dylan Hayes on a grounder and fanning the final two.

For most of the first eight games of the season, Whitman had won behind dazzling pitching, solid fielding, and timely if not overwhelming hitting. Against Churchill, those strengths all disappeared for an evening as the Vikings walked seven, hit two, threw two wild pitches, made three errors, and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. But as 2011 NL Cy Young Award winner and noted baseball philosopher Clayton Kershaw said after a rare poor outing last year, “Tomorrow is a new day.” And so it was time for the Vikings to hit the practice field on Tuesday and get ready for a Wednesday evening home tilt against another bitter rival in B-CC.

“It’s déjà vu all over again.” Yogi Berra (also the title of a John Fogerty song)

True, this time the final was 4-1, not 6-1 – but aside from that, the script was largely the same for the Whitman Vikings as in their first loss of the season three days earlier to Churchill. After a one-day delay due to a combination of rain and light problems at their home field, Whitman again came up short to a major rival, falling to B-CC on a warm afternoon to drop to 8-2 on the season. And for a second consecutive affair, it was a combination of still-snoozing bats and erratic glove work that doomed the Vikings.

In fairness, Whitman battled Barons’ ace hurler Nico Narel-Aguilar, forcing him to throw well over one hundred pitches. Michael Flack in the three slot walked twice and took one in the back to reach all three times. But when all was said and done, the Vikings were limited to Dan Duffy and Josh Biel infield singles, both coming in the fifth inning, when they threatened to tie the contest only to be thwarted by a deplorable call at first base. The runs continued to prove elusive – Whitman now having crossed the plate only four times in the past three contests.

Starter Ryan McGill deserved a better fate, dropping his first in four decisions. Like Michael Flack the previous game, McGill struck out the side in the first, but after averting trouble in the second, he was undermined in the third stanza by two miscues, a walk, and a hit that made it 2-0 B-CC. Drew Aherne quelled a potential uprising in the fourth with a diving grab and later a running catch in center that stranded two Barons. Whitman cut the lead in half in the bottom of the frame as Flack came around on a passed ball after being plunked and moving up on a wild pitch and walk, but the tying and lead runs expired on base.

Then, after McGill again pitched out of a jam in the top of the fifth, the Duffy and Biel hits and a Flack base on balls loaded the sacks with two down. Aherne, in the cleanup slot, appeared to beat out a grounder to short with a head first dive, only to be called out by an umpire who had been reproached moments before by the B-CC skipper over another bang-bang play. And so, rather than knotting the score, Whitman still trailed by a 2-1 count. As it turned out , that was Whitman’s best and final shot, as the Vikes went down meekly in the final two frames, while the Barons scraped together insurance runs on a nice suicide squeeze in the sixth and a two-out single in the seventh.

And thus, with the regular season past its midpoint, Whitman had to hope that the perplexing past two games were anomalous – and that five days hence against WJ they would assuage any concerns, curtail the two-game skid, and return to the ebullient form that had landed them on the NewsChannel 8 highlight reel a mere six days earlier. (Readers may refer to Dr. Goodwin’s “Top 200 Words” list for any desired definitions.)

On a brisk afternoon that felt more like early March than late April, the Whitman Vikings snapped their two-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the visiting Walter Johnson Wildcats.

The winning formula was the mix that had carried the Vikings during their eight straight wins out of the gate: strong starting pitching, solid and at times dynamic defense, and timely hitting. Michael Flack hurled a complete game to raise his record to 4-1, Pat Hisle keyed the glove work by helping turn double plays to end innings 5, 6, and 7, and Hisle, Andrew Castagnetti, and Mike Yang led the hit parade with two apiece.

WJ jumped on Flack in the first, loading the bases on a pair of walks and a bloop single before cleanup hitter Gus Gill’s fly to left was lost in the sun – making it 2-0 Wildcats as some of the fans were still settling into their seats. But Flack settled down, striking out the side – the last two after another walk had again filled the sacks – and the visitors rarely challenged thereafter. “Flack missed a few spots early,” noted veteran battery mate Josh Biel, “but he really got the mojo going after that.”

Meanwhile, Coach Joe Cassidy juggled his lineup in an effort to add some punch, and the Vikings responded by tying the score in the bottom of the first – though more with their legs than their bats. Hisle reached on a one-out walk, stole second, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. With two out, Ryan McGill also coaxed a free pass, and the duo slyly pulled off a delayed double steal to cut the WJ lead in half. Castagnetti followed with his first of two clutch two-out RBI singles, plating McGill, and it was knotted after one.

Flack fanned three more in the second, but Whitman wasted a golden opportunity in the bottom half as Sam Avayou singled but was later thrown out trying to steal third, and Yang’s single, a walk, and an error went for naught as Flack lined one to center to end the threat. Innings three and four proved uneventful, and then Hisle turned a nice 6-3 DP to close the top of the fifth after the previous hitter had confused himself on the basepaths, remaining at first on what should have been a sure double.

Whitman then finally broke through in the bottom of five as Hisle roped a one-out double and came around with the go-ahead tally when McGill duplicated his feat with two down. Castagnetti went with the pitch and slapped another RBI hit to right and it was 4-2. Flack surrendered a leadoff walk in the sixth but Avayou and Hisle turned a dazzling 4-6-3 twin killing that evoked memories of Robbie Alomar and Omar Vizquel around the bag for the Indians circa 1999-2000 (at least for long suffering Tribe fans).

Yang took things into his own hands – and feet – in the bottom of the sixth, slapping a single down the line in left, advancing to third on an errant pickoff throw, and scoring on a wild pitch to make it 5-2. Hisle crushed a two-out double to deep left but was cut down at the plate after a pitch in the dirt trickled a few feet up the line.

That left it to Flack – who allowed a walk with one gone, but then snared a comebacker and combined with Hisle and McGill on a game-ending 1-6-3 DP. And with that, the two-game skid was over, Whitman was back in the win column, and the squad could look forward to an away contest at struggling Wheaton and a home tilt against Richard Montgomery before the week was out.

The expected steady rain held off, and under overcast skies on a Thursday afternoon in Wheaton the Whitman Vikings blanked the hosts, 12-0, in a game concluded after five innings under “mercy rule” criteria. The easy win over the winless Knights provided an opportunity for a group of Vikings who had maintained their spirit and enthusiasm throughout the season despite limited game action to show their stuff at the plate, in the field, and on the mound.

The pitching chores were divided five ways, with Gabe Steinberg, Mike West, Connor Bissell, Noah Klotz, and Alex Beckel each twirling a scoreless frame – Steinberg setting the tone with a three up, three down first inning while fanning two. Coach Joe Cassidy tweaked his starting lineup again, moving Michael Flack into the leadoff spot, Drew Aherne to third in the order, and Ryan McGill into the cleanup slot.

The Vikings wasted an Aherne double and steal in the first, but scored five in the second frame – primarily on walks and passed balls, but with a Pat Hisle single plating two of the runs. After Mike West wrapped up the bottom of the second by coaxing a 6-4-3 twin killing, Whitman blew the game open with six more in the third. Josh Biel got it started with a triple down the right field line and came around on a catcher’s interference call with Dan Duffy at the plate. A combination of Flack, McGill, and Sam Avayou singles, walks, Hisle sacrifice fly, and a balk left the Knights down by double digits.

Cassidy then cleared his bench in the bottom of the third, with Nick Bode behind the dish, Jared Berul, Ben Page, and Alex Pomerenk joining Duffy around the infield, and Evan Reeves, Jacob Rasch (channeling Rick Ankiel), and Dylan Hayes manning the outfield pasture. Bissell struck out two in his inning of work, and the Vikings added their twelfth and final tally in the top of the fourth as Reeves reached on an error on a well-hit ball and scored on a two-out double by Page before Rasch was retired on a fly to right.

Klotz ascended the bump in the bottom half of the inning and retired the side in order, matching Steinberg and Bissell with two Ks. Max Sessions made his varsity debut in the fifth – Ben Castagnetti joining him as a JV call-up and also seeing action in a pinch running role – but the Vikes went down 1-2-3, though Berul provided some excitement with a long fly to center. That left it to Beckel, who closed it out with yet another three up, three down, two strikeout performance and Whitman headed back across Randolph Road with a 10-2 record in tow.

For the better part of eleven games, the Whitman bench brigade had provided consistent vocal support (led by the always enthusiastic and rarely muted Reeves) and other positive feedback to the starting nine. Now, in Game 12, they got the bulk of the playing time – with some hope of more to come in the final portion of the regular season.

Ryan McGill scattered three hits over five innings, and Pat Hisle and Noah Klotz each threw a scoreless frame as the Whitman Vikings blanked the Richard Montgomery Rockets, 9-0, to run their record to 11-2 and extend the team’s latest string of shutout innings to eighteen (following on the final six of the WJ game and five in the shortened win over Wheaton win). McGill ran his record to 4-1, matching Michael Flack’s mark. The senior lefty pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the third and the Vikings then batted around in the bottom of the inning, scoring five to break open a close game.

The Whitman defense again was solid, featuring a diving grab in right by Mike Yang to end the top of the first, solid play at second by Sam Avayou, steady work behind the plate by Josh Biel, and Flack’s debut in left field. The bats started strong this time around, with Flack – hitting leadoff for the second straight contest – lacing a double to left, moving to third on a Hisle sacrifice, and scoring on a McGill sac fly to right. Drew Aherne, who had walked and stolen second, scored the second run on yet another clutch two-out single by Andrew Castagnetti. Then, after failing to score in the second despite two walks, the Vikings extended their lead to 3-0 in the third as Hisle singled, scampered to third on an errant pickoff throw, and came across on an Aherne sac fly to right. McGill blooped a double to right center but Castagnetti’s long fly to left was tracked down – his only out of the afternoon.

The fourth proved to be the pivotal frame of the contest. RM loaded the sacks with one out on two hits and an infield error. But the Rockets twice failed to execute a suicide squeeze, to the growing dismay of their veteran skipper Bobby George, and then went down on a failed bunt turned third strike and a grounder to third. Whitman then exploded in the bottom half of the inning. Biel drew his second free pass of the game and team leading fifteenth of the campaign and came all the way around with the fourth tally on a Dan Duffy line double to left center. With one out, Flack walked, and after he broke up a potential double play with a hard but clean slide at second, Aherne lined a single to center to score Duffy and make it 5-0. McGill appeared to be hit by a pitch, but the umpire ruled he had failed to do enough to evade the sphere; undaunted, the other RM lofted a single to right that plated Flack and Aherne with runs six and seven. Castagnetti completed the onslaught with a solid single that scored pinch runner Evan Reeves, who had swiped second, and all of a sudden Whitman had an 8-0 lead.

After McGill tossed a 1-2-3 top of the fifth, Coach Joe Cassidy had his second straight opportunity to turn the game over to Whitman’s gritty reserves. While the Vikes went in order in the fifth, come the sixth they added their final run on consecutive pinch singles by Reeves to right, Connor Bissell to right center, and Max Sessions to left – Sessions earning his first ribbie at the varsity level. Castagnetti’s third hit loaded the bases again, but the Rocket reliever extricated himself and avoided a “mercy rule” walkoff.

That gave Klotz the opportunity to wrap it up. Hisle had wriggled out of a two-on, none-out top of sixth with a nice play by Avayou at second and two Ks. The lanky sidearming Klotz made it easy in his second straight scoreless appearance, walking one but then closing things by grabbing a soft comebacker and doubling the runner off first. And with that, Whitman had its third consecutive victory after a two-game skid and some needed momentum going into a week of three straight challenging road games at Wootton, Paint Branch (to be played at Blake), and Northwest before finishing the regular season back at home against Clarksburg on Community Night and Kennedy on Senior Night.

Michael Flack just likes playing at Wootton, and Andrew Castagnetti just likes hitting with runners in scoring position and two out. Together, the senior pitcher and junior third sacker carried the Whitman Vikings to a critical 5-1 victory over a solid Patriots’ squad, raising the Vikings’ record to a Montgomery County public school best 12-2.

Previously on the same diamond, Flack blasted a dramatic home run as a ninth grader and then in his sophomore season earned a tension-laden save as Whitman knocked the heavily favored Patriots out of the playoffs. This time, he threw another complete game to raise his mark to 5-1 and went 3-4 at the dish with a double and two singles, also reaching his last time on an error. He yielded his lone run in the first and then settled into a groove before getting out of a base-loaded, one-out jam in the final stanza.

Meanwhile, Castagnetti did his best Evan Longoria (.550 with RISP so far this year, key homer at the end of 2011, etc.) “Mr. Clutch” imitation – though AC should feel no need to further mimic the Rays’ star 3B, who earlier in the day landed on the DL with a torn hammy – by stroking a two-out, two-run single in the top of the third to give Whitman a 2-1 lead. Coming through at a critical juncture has become second nature to him, including in recent wins over WJ and RM – and the basketball playoff upset of BCC.

Prior to Castagnetti’s timely hit, Whitman and Wootton had traded missed scoring opportunities. Flack led off the game with a hit but was stranded as Patriots’ starter Andrew Craig struck out two, and in the second, the first two Vikings reached (starting with an AC single) but a bunt popout and DP grounder ended things. Then in the bottom of the second, Wootton threatened to build on its 1-0 lead when a hit and infield error put runners on second and third with none out. But the defense tightened at the right time. First, a grounder back to the hill landed the lead runner in a pickle, with catcher Josh Biel applying the tag, and then pulled-in second baseman Sam Avayou gunned down another runner at the plate by spearing a grounder and throwing quickly to Biel, who laid it down on the sliding Patriot. Flack polished off the next hitter on strikes, and Wootton was left to wonder what might have been.

The third began with a Mike Yang walk and Flack single. Drew Aherne drew a free pass to load the bases with one down, and then one out later, Castagnetti delivered in the clutch. A shortstop error on a hard-hit Avayou grounder plated Aherne with the third run. After Flack shrugged off a liner that nailed him in the leg before deflecting to Pat Hisle at short, he delivered DH Max Sessions – who had walked and stolen second – with a two-out double that made it 4-1 in the fourth. Whitman scored its final run in the fifth as Avayou reached on a two-out blooper and fellow lefty swinger Biel knocked him in with a clean single to center off the southpaw reliever. The Vikings missed a chance to extend the lead in the sixth when Ryan McGill’s line shot was speared at short and turned into an inning-ended double play.

The bottom of the seventh proved tense for the raucous gathering of Whitman parents, who had been hollering throughout and banging the metal bleachers under Howard Flack’s orchestration. The younger Flack walked two around a strikeout and an infield single loaded the sacks with one down and brought the tying run to the plate. The big righty Kd the next hitter on a nasty offspeed pitch, but then left a splitter up in the zone. The batsman made solid contact, launching a drive to deep center. But Aherne drifted back confidently and pocketed the orb, and Whitman had its fourth straight W heading into away games against winning Paint Branch and Northwest squads.

Those who arrived late thought they saw a great pitchers’ dual. But those who made the long schlep (not an SAT vocabulary word) out to Blake High School – the home away from home for the Paint Branch Panthers – on a balmy Wednesday afternoon and got there on time witnessed the Whitman Vikings put a seriously crooked number on the board in the top of the first. Specifically, the Vikes tallied seven times in a rare offensive onslaught and never looked back in beating the Panthers, 8-2.

Whitman sent eleven men to the plate in the initial half inning and came away with eight hits. It went as follows: Michael Flack single, Pat Hisle double, Drew Aherne two-run single, Ryan McGill single, Andrew Castagnetti RBI single, Sam Avayou 4-6-3 double play grounder (but more on Sam shortly), wild pitch to the deep backstop to score pinch runner Evan Reeves, Josh Biel single, Dan Duffy double, Mike Yang walk, and Flack double off the fence in right center to clear the bases and make it 7-0 before the Paint Branch starter was mercifully lifted and the reliever retired Hisle on a foul popup.

The beneficiary was McGill, who after the long half inning was touched up for two runs on three hits in the bottom of the first. From there, the complexion of the game (not to mention of the sun-drenched fans’ faces) changed dramatically. After Aherne was hit by a pitch to start the second, the next eight Vikings went down before the very same sophomore in the three slot ripped a two-out double in the fourth. Meanwhile, McGill settled down and threw shutout ball the rest of the way, with the aforementioned Avayou handling seven balls (six assists and a putout) flawlessly at second and Aherne tracking down four flies in center. McGill surrendered only two more singles for the duration in raising his record to 5-1 to match Flack’s mark, with other runners reaching on two infield errors and one free pass. The senior southpaw struck out six, including the final two of the contest.

While Whitman’s bats cooled after the first, Aherne stayed on fire, going 3-for-3 and plating Flack, who had singled and went 3-for-5, with a long double in the top of the sixth for the only tally over the final six frames by either side. Complementing Aherne and Flack’s twin three-RBI afternoons was Castagnetti with a 2-for-4 outing and the other ribbie. Duffy also had two hits and pinch hitter Max Sessions added a single in the seventh. Even the bunting, at times erratic in earlier contests, produced positive results on this day, as Biel and Hisle each dropped a perfect sacrifice to move runners into scoring position.

But the story was the 1-2 punch of Flack and Aherne as the Vikings’ team batting average, down around .250 after back to back losses to Churchill and B-CC, climbed near the .300 level on the season – coupled with the consistently stellar yet seemingly effortless hurling of McGill, who looked from a distance as if he was barely breaking a sweat even as the mercury climbed well over 80 degrees. With their fifth straight victory, the Vikings took their season mark to 13-2 and moved closer to earning a first-round playoff bye, raising the hopes of those who have to be elsewhere when the postseason officially commences a week from Friday, May 11.

The future of Walt Whitman High School baseball looks very bright indeed. And the present’s not bad, either.

Junior Gabe Steinberg, likely to be at the top of the rotation in 2013 but exiled to spot duty for most of this season after a solid sophomore campaign due to the dominance of senior aces Michael Flack and Ryan McGill, spun a nine-inning masterpiece as Whitman edged the Northwest Jaguars, 2-1, in a tense and extremely well-played extra inning affair. Fellow junior Pat Hisle led a flawless defensive effort with a stellar afternoon at shortstop, recording three putouts and five assists and twice ranging deep into the hole to retrieve grounders and nail the runners at first. And sophomore Max Sessions, thrust into the DH role with Dan Duffy out of town, came through with a towering double to the base of the wall in left to drive in the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth.

The win bolstered the Vikings’ record to 14-2 and clinched the top seed in the 4A West, ensuring a first-round bye as well as home field advantage throughout the regional playoffs. Whitman will conclude its regular season with home contests against Clarksburg on Monday, May 7 (Community Night) and Kennedy on Wednesday, May 9 (Senior Night) and then is off until the following Monday the 14th. With wins over the struggling Coyotes and Cavaliers, the Vikings can enter the record books with the best regular season mark in school history.

But enough looking ahead; there was sufficient suspense on an overcast Saturday afternoon in Germantown to keep the players, coaches, and fans focused on this contest alone.

Steinberg’s gem lived up to the old pitching axiom to throw strikes and let your fielders do their jobs. The righthander neither walked nor struck out a single Jaguar in his complete game victory (though he did hit a batter) – an uncommon feat witnessed at the major league level less than 25 times in the past quarter century (twice by Bob Tewksbury of the Cardinals in the early 90s). He scattered nine hits (three times the number Whitman accumulated), kept the ball down, and was consistently ahead in the count. And his fielders, led by Hisle, did the rest – handling 27 chances without a single miscue.

Meanwhile, Northwest senior hurler Joey Moeltner allowed only an unearned first inning run and two hits prior to Sessions’ clutch two bagger that saddled him with a tough-luck loss. Moeltner was his own worst enemy in the initial frame. Michael Flack drew a leadoff walk. Hisle forced him at second, then scampered to third on an errant pickoff throw before scoring on a Drew Aherne groundout to short. Ryan McGill walked and Andrew Castagnetti bounced an infield single before Sam Avayou made solid contact but flew out to center (the first of eight Whitman outs recorded with an “8” in the stat book).

After that, Moeltner stilled the recently-hot Viking bats, yielding only a McGill safety over the next seven innings, with other Whitman runners reached on a walk, two HBPs, and a catcher’s interference call. But Steinberg was his equal from the start. After going in order in the first, Northwest scored its only run in the second when the leadoff hitter singled, narrowly stole second by sliding around a strong throw from catcher Josh Biel, and came home on a solid single. Biel gunned out that runner at second and Aherne tracked down a long fly to center to keep it 1-1, and the defensive heroics continued with Hisle’s first great play in the third, a nice grab by Mike Yang in right in the fifth, and a 6-3 twin killing engineered by Hisle in the seventh that erased a leadoff single as the game moved into extra frames.

Whitman threatened in the top of the eighth as Flack was hit by an offspeed offering and took second on a perfect sacrifice by Hisle and third on a groundout, but got no further as the Vikes went down on yet another fly ball to center. Then in the bottom of the inning, a leadoff single and another with one out put two Jaguars on base. The lead runner took third on a fly out to Yang in right, and Moeltner strode to the plate in the cleanup slot with a chance to win it for himself. On an 0-2 count, the big righty topped a slow grounder toward short that had trouble written all over it. But Hisle charged, scooped, and fired to McGill – beating the runner by a step and preserving the tie.

The ninth began quietly enough, with Castagnetti lofting one to right. Avayou, swinging the bat well of late but with little to show for it, then ripped one to left center but was victimized by a diving grab. But with two out and none on, Biel went to a full count and then drew a walk – his team-leading sixteenth on the season. Ben Castagnetti ran for him and came all the way around on Sessions’ clutch blast to left, finally breaking the tie.

Having thrown only 71 pitches through eight very efficient innings, Steinberg was still strong and fresh, and he retired the first hitter in the bottom of the ninth on a routine pop to -- who else? – Hisle at short. But the sixth-place hitter singled sharply, putting the tying run on base. And when the next batsman sent a hard grounder toward left, it looked for an instant like the Jaguars would have a rally going. But Hisle snuffed it out by ranging far to his right, planting himself, and gunning a perfect throw to McGill at first for the second out as the large contingent of Whitman fans rose to their feet. And then Avayou ended it by backhanding one near the bag at second and flipping to first to end what can only be described as a classic high school baseball game.

From Andrew Castagnetti’s diving, backhanded stab and throw on the first batter of the game to Jacob Rasch’s walkoff hit (by pitch), the Whitman Vikings were in complete control throughout in besting the Clarksburg Coyotes, 10-0, in a Community Night affair shortened to five innings under the “mercy rule.” Michael Flack and Mike West combined on the shutout, and Castagnetti, Josh Biel, and Drew Aherne drove in two runs apiece to pace the hitting attack as the Vikings scored in every inning and tuned up for the postseason while raising their county-best record to 15-2.

The evening began with longtime JV team manager Matt Ficca tossing the ceremonial first pitch to his “best buddy” Evan Reeves as his brothers and parents looked on. The Whitman starting nine were then accompanied to their positions in the field by the players of the BCC Hurricanes 10U squad, who fielded their practice grounders and flies with considerable skill. After Castagnetti’s sterling play kicked things off, Flack struck out five over his three innings of work, yielding only a pair of two-out singles in the third. West then polished off the final six, beginning with a nice diving stab by Dan Duffy at first.

The Vikings scored four in the bottom of the first. Castagnetti knocked in the first two with a bases-loaded, one-out single to center after Flack was hit by a pitch, Pat Hisle reached on an error, and Aherne walked. Sam Avayou followed with a sacrifice fly to right, and Biel then ripped a triple past the right fielder to make it 4-0. Aherne’s RBI single after an outfield miscue added to the lead in the second, and in the next frame Mike Yang followed a Max Sessions single by plating Biel with a sac fly to center. Then in the fourth, Aherne’s sac fly scored Hisle and Biel’s bases loaded groundout scored Ryan McGill with the eighth tally.

In the fifth, six players each came to the plate for the first time as the Vikings ended things with runs nine and ten. Duffy stroked a solid single and after Alex Pomerenk walked, Jared Berul laced a hit to right center to load the sacks. With one out, Evan Reeves drove in Duffy and then Rasch was drilled. While the Clarksburg hurler could not be reached for comment, there was no indication that the plunking was intentional or that the visitors viewed the diminutive senior as an arrogant 17-year old.

And so the game was over roughly 80 minutes after it commenced. About the only negative on the evening, which also featured fine cuisine, raffle giveaways, and kudos to all of the parent volunteers, was that the premature conclusion deprived two other Whitman hurlers of an inning apiece on the hill. But hope remained that they and others would have their shots 48 hours hence on Senior Night against the Kennedy Cavaliers, weather permitting.

“But they were out for fun, and rain could not dampen their feelings, however hard it poured.” Captain Joshua Slocum (1844-1909), first person to sail solo around the world.

The skies opened up in Bethesda roughly an hour before the scheduled 7 pm start of the Whitman Vikings’ regular season finale against the Kennedy Cavaliers. Even as both teams warmed up on the field as the rain intensified, it was clear by the time the umpires arrived that this was not going to be a night for baseball, and the Cavaliers climbed back into their bus for the trip home to Silver Spring.

But all was not lost. The outdoor portion of Senior Night evening culminated with graduating JV team manager Matt Ficca tossing a perfect first pitch to “best buddy” Evan Reeves – repeating his feat from Community Night 48 hours before. The legion of players, parents, and other relatives, as well as Principal Alan Goodwin and others, then retreated inside – eventually finding refuge in the Whitman Cafeteria. And there, following brief opening remarks by Coach Joe Cassidy, emcee Doug Sessions and the rest of those assembled honored Ficca and the eleven seniors on the 15-2 squad.

One by one, they came up to the applause of their teammates and relatives: Sam Avayou, Alex Beckel, Josh Biel, Connor Bissell, Michael Flack, Noah Klotz, Ben Page, Jacob Rasch, Evan Reeves, Michael West, and Ryan McGill. Some who had starred at the varsity level dating back two or more seasons, others who made the most of their limited opportunities on the diamond. An unusually close-knit squad, as Cassidy noted, with more than one using the word “camaraderie” (and spelling it correctly) in the short bios they had drafted to describe the degree of support and friendship among their teammates.

The bond could be seen in the panoramic portrait of the eleven that graced the cover of the terrific Senior Night program produced – like the set of cards distributed at Community Night – by Anne West. A photo perfectly juxtaposed with the fabulous collages assembled by Lisa Sessions highlighting the individual legacies of the eleven players and one manager – some showing their growth from pre-schoolers with their original batting stances to seniors on the hill, at the plate, or in the field.

Earlier in the day, the postseason tournament draw established that the top-seeded Vikings, after a first-round bye, would play the winner of Friday’s Gaithersburg-Clarksburg contest next Monday at Whitman. The winner of that game likely would face the survivor of the tough opening round Walter Johnson-B-CC matchup, though Blair and Richard Montgomery would also have a shot at advancing.

But for this one rainy night, it was more about looking back than ahead and honoring the careers of eleven seniors who had made their marks in many different ways on Whitman baseball.

End of six, Whitman up comfortably, 8-1, and the only open issue seemed to be what should reign as the featured storyline for this imminent playoff victory. Perhaps Ryan McGill’s four shutout frames before he moved to left field to preserve innings and arm freshness for the hoped-for regional final on Friday. Maybe the end of years of postseason misery against Gaithersburg, including playoff elimination the past two seasons and three of four, not to mention in football in 2010: the headline could read, “Thrilling Night as Vikings Finally Break Through Trojans.” Or how Whitman showed no rust after a nine-day layoff due to a Senior Night rainout, a first-round bye, and postponements the previous two nights and catapulted to a big lead, never to look back.

No, the lead had to be how a combined 6-for-7 by super sophs Drew Aherne (4-4, two runs, three RBI) and Max Sessions (2-3, two doubles, run and RBI) paced the attack, with Aherne throwing in a great over- the-shoulder grab in deep center for good measure (as last year’s CF James Dionne watched from behind the plate with Drew’s mother and aunt).

But then it almost all unraveled. Gaithersburg plated five runs off two relievers in the top of the seventh, culminating in a monster grand slam off the scoreboard in center. Staff ace Michael Flack, slated to start in less the 24 hours, was summoned from the outfield and pressed into closer duty – only to hit the first batter, give up an infield single, and face the go-ahead run at the dish with only one down. Many in the near-capacity crowd were in a precarious state, with the game and season suddenly on the brink, but Flack stayed cool, calm, and collected and whiffed that hitter for out number two.

And just when you think you’ve seen it all – the Trojans tried a double steal to move both runners into scoring position. And, given the element of surprise, the play seemed destined to work. Only the lead runner broke for third way too early, Flack pivoted off the rubber, flipped to Andrew Castagnetti, who applied the tag, and it was finally over. Whitman 8, Gaithersburg 6, as the Trojans’ coach berated the hapless runner for the egregious blunder.

With the win, the Vikings moved on to a regional semifinal tilt the following evening against rival B-CC, who edged WJ and beat RM to earn its berth. The game would be the rubber match of the season against the Barons, with Whitman winning 6-5 back on April 2 and then being handed its most recent loss, 4-1, exactly four weeks ago.

The hitting heroes on this warm evening were clearly Aherne and Sessions, with Flack walking thrice and scoring two times and Castagnetti adding a key RBI single in the three-run third as Whitman doubled its lead to 6-0. By the time Gabe Steinberg relieved McGill (two hits, three Ks in four scoreless innings) in the fifth it was 7-0. Steinberg, eleven days removed from his brilliant nine-inning outing at Northwest, retired the side in order and then gave up what seemed like a harmless tally in the sixth as Aherne’s running catch and a barehanded play by Castagnetti kept the Trojans from bursting out for more.

The lead grew back to seven after six as Aherne’s fourth safety scored Flack, who had singled and stolen second. But Gaithersburg loaded the bases on an error, single, and walk, scored on a wild pitch, and again filled the sacks on a free pass. After a strikeout, the mammoth slam drew the visitors to within two. But Flack restored order and earned the save after a few more tense minutes, and Whitman advanced, if not quite in the manner anticipated prior to the top of the seventh.

With one mighty Kingmanesque swing, Dan Duffy sent a Nico Narel-Aguilar offering into the still night air, a towering fly that came to earth only after soaring well over the 345-foot barrier in dead center. And by the time his exuberant teammates mobbed the 6’5” slugger at home plate, Whitman’s tenuous one-run lead had grown to five and the Vikings were well on their way to the 4A regional final the following afternoon.

Duffy mashed a 3-1 pitch for a fourth-inning grand slam off the longtime Whitman nemesis, and Michael Flack did the rest, tossing a complete game four-hitter, as the Vikings knocked off the B-CC Barons, 8-1, in a regional semifinal contest before an overflow home crowd. With the victory, Whitman raised its mark to 17-2, setting a new record for wins in a season.

Prior to the Duffy blast, it was a genuine pitchers’ duel. Flack breezed through the first three frames, yielding a lone single and getting good defensive support from Andrew Castagnetti at third and converted first sacker Ryan McGill in left. Flack also scored the Vikings’ initial run in the first, lining a leadoff single to center, moving to second on a Pat Hisle sacrifice, and coming around on a throwing error by the Barons’ shortstop. Narel-Aguilar settled down and then in the top of the fourth, Flack issued back to back walks with two down. But after backstop Josh Biel blocked two balls in the dirt to keep runners at second and third, Flack struck out the sixth-place hitter to keep it at 1-0 Whitman.

The bottom of the inning started quietly with two routine groundouts. But Castagnetti roped a single to center and when second sacker Sam Avayou grounded one that his counterpart backhanded nicely, AC hustled into second and narrowly beat the throw. Max Sessions drew a free pass and the sacks were filled for Duffy, who worked the count to his favor before depositing a fastball beyond the fence and sending teammates and fans alike into ecstasy.

Whitman’s momentum carried over to the fifth, as Duffy made a diving stab at first and flipped to Flack covering the bag, and one strikeout later, Biel gunned out a runner trying to pilfer third. Then in the bottom half, Flack walked and came around as Hisle ripped a triple up the gap in right center. Drew Aherne, coming off a 4-for-4 night against Gaithersburg, followed with a solid double down the line in left and it was 7-0 Whitman. Avayou capped the scoring with a single to right that plated McGill with what proved to be the Vikings’ final run.

Flack allowed a soft single with one out in the sixth but then struck out dangerous third-place hitter Davon Williams, and Hisle followed with a nice play on a Narel-Aguilar grounder. Consecutive singles by Biel and Flack with one out in the bottom of the inning had Whitman fans thinking “mercy rule” but the B-CC ace induced grounders that left pinch runners Evan Reeves and Jacob Rasch in scoring position and extended the contest to the seventh. The first two Barons went down with ease, before a misplayed fly and two walks loaded the bases, and a single to right ended Flack’s shutout bid. But any worries about another big comeback, following on Gaithersburg’s five-run rally in the seventh one night before, quickly dissipated as Flack nailed it down with his ninth strikeout.

And with that, Whitman moved on to its first regional final in three years, preparing to face the Northwest Jaguars in a rematch of their classic 2-1 nine-inning affair just under two weeks before – and looking for its first-ever berth in the state final four.

“You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.” Jim Bouton, Ball Four.

“Baseball breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.” A. Bartlett Giamatti.

Yep, baseball is a funny and a cruel game. Look no further than the Maryland 4A playoffs. All four top seeds out – two without even reaching the regional finals. Sherwood, eliminated a year ago in stunning fashion by Churchill when they were a dominant, senior-laden squad and a heavy favorite to win it all, sneaks into the final four this time around during a supposed rebuilding year in which they were no hit by Michael Flack. And an unseeded but solid Northwest team knocks out #3 Magruder, #2 Quince Orchard, and finally, on a hot and sunny Friday afternoon before an overflow crowd in Bethesda, #1 Whitman by a 5-3 count in eight innings.

The regional final game that ended Whitman’s season at 17-3 is fairly easy to summarize. Northwest scores twice in the first, Whitman equalizes. Jaguars break through for one in the fifth, Vikings tie it again in the bottom half. Each team misses out on decent scoring chances, game goes to extras, Northwest gets a long two-out double in the eighth, adds one more on a bloop single, and this time Whitman can’t match them. Game and season over.

To get the specifics out of the way, Northwest’s two runs in the top of the first off Ryan McGill came on a walk, single and a throw that skipped through and moved the runners up, an RBI groundout by starting pitcher Joey Moeltner, and a sharp single by the fifth-place hitter. Whitman came right back as Michael Flack ripped a single, moved up on a Pat Hisle sacrifice, and scored on a two-out double by McGill, who then came home on an Andrew Castagnetti single. There it remained through the next three frames, as McGill allowed only a second-inning walk and Hisle fielded five grounders flawlessly at short, including three in the fourth inning, while Moeltner set down all nine Whitman hitters.

When the fifth rolled around, fleet Northwest outfielder Max Banks walked, stole two bases, and came home on a single. But again Whitman responded. Max Sessions slapped a leadoff single to right but pinch runner Evan Reeves was thrown out trying to steal on a bang-bang play at second – one of several close calls on the basepaths to go against the Vikings. Dan Duffy was then hit by a pitch, balked to second, and wild pitched to third. After Josh Biel was retired on a bizarre play – accidentally hitting a comebacker while diving out of the way of a high and inside offering – Flack came through with a clutch, game-tying single and it was 3-3.

Gabe Steinberg relieved McGill to start the sixth, and survived two singles – the second on a highly questionable call at first – and a second and third situation after a potential round the horn DP turned into a single out at first due to a safe call at second on a high throw. The junior righty, who had pitched nine stellar innings at Northwest thirteen days before, bore down and Hisle made a nice play on yet another grounder to short to retire the Jaguars without incident. Then the Vikings had their chance, as McGill walked and advanced to third on a wild pickoff throw, but Banks – who had relieved Moeltner to start the sixth – pitched out of it with a strikeout and fly ball off the bat of hard-luck Sam Avayou directly to the center fielder.

The seventh was uneventful, with a Northwest runner reaching second and Whitman going in order, but then in the fateful eighth the Jaguars broke through. After a leadoff single and sac bunt, Hisle made yet another terrific play by eschewing the safe out at first and throwing behind the runner to Castagnetti, who applied the tag at third. But before most of the crowd could exhale, the Northwest catcher blasted a double to the wall in center to make it 4-3 and came around on Banks’ Texas Leaguer. As the fans rose to their collective feet, Flack led off the bottom of the eighth by being hit by an offspeed pitch, but Banks retired the next three on a flyout and two Ks, and it was the Jaguars who celebrated as the home fans gave the disconsolate Vikings a well-deserved standing ovation. Players and coaches lingered on the field and in the dugout for a good half hour as the record-breaking season ended a bit too soon.

If there was a small measure of solace in the devastating loss, it was that it came against Northwest – a very good team with a classy coach (who had written a kind note to Whitman Coach Joe Cassidy after the Vikings’ 2-1 victory on Northwest’s Senior Day) – and not again certain other, less-deserving schools located to the north and northwest of Whittier Boulevard. That said, it was still an extremely tough defeat, given how close the Vikings were to a state semifinal matchup (against Sherwood, as it turned out) at the University of Maryland.

So how to sum up a season of so many highs, a couple of blips midway through, eight and later nine-game winning streaks, and then one major low at the very end? To start with the eleven seniors – recognized individually some nine days before at an indoor Senior Night ceremony following an end-of-regular-season rainout.

Alex Beckel, new to Whitman and who provided solid pitching depth and became a key part of the team. Two-year varsity players Jacob Rasch, Ben Page, Noah Klotz, Evan Reeves, and Connor Bissell, who would have liked to see more regular action but contributed when called upon, particularly in the field, on the bases, and in the cases of Klotz and Bissell on the mound. Fellow two-year veteran Mike West, who saw less action on the hill due to a deeper rotation than in 2011 but added his third victory to conclude a solid career. Three-year starter Sam Avayou, who played a tough and passionate second base throughout (after some shortstop as well the previous year), and whose average was held down only by a penchant to hit the ball solidly but directly at various outfielders. Two of the three captains, Ryan McGill and Josh Biel, who both came back from injuries during their junior years. McGill, who missed all of 2011 (aside from one appearance at the plate at the end) with a broken ankle, finished 6-1 on the season and was a steady, middle-of-the-order contributor at the plate. Biel, who missed half of the previous season with two thumb injuries, rebounded to catch all but two innings in 2012, including 22 in a span of under 48 hours during the playoff run, and was assured behind the plate with his glove and in his pitch calling. And finally, Michael Flack, who merely put together perhaps the finest career in Whitman baseball history as a four-year starter, finishing his senior season with seven wins, two saves, a no-hitter, 70 strikeouts in 49 innings, a minuscule ERA, and a batting average that while a bit below previous years still was on the high side of .350. Enough said.

A lot of gaps to fill come Spring 2013, to be sure, but the returning crew appears both talented and deep. Andrew Castagnetti at third, Dan Duffy at first, and Mike Yang in either left or right field will be primed in their third years as starters – with AC coming off a team-leading 18 RBI season and Duffy returning after blasting all three Vikings’ homers in 2012, including the dramatic grand slam that buried the B-CC Barons in the regional semifinal. Pat Hisle, who joined the squad as a transfer from Gonzaga for his junior year and hit in the neighborhood of .350, tied Flack for the team lead with eight stolen bases, readied himself for a more prominent pitching role as a senior with a win and several solid outings, and above all played shortstop like the second coming of Omar Vizquel – especially in the two games against Northwest. Gabe Steinberg, consistent and durable, who added two wins in 2012 to the four he earned as a sophomore and should be the staff ace next spring.

Drew Aherne, the best pure hitter on the team, who finished his sophomore year as leader in batting average and total bases and played an immaculate center field, saving numerous runs with running or diving grabs. Soph slugger Max Sessions, promoted from JV toward the end of the regular season, who hit over .350 and with Aherne keyed the semifinal win over B-CC after beating Northwest several days before with his double to the wall in the ninth. Juniors Alex Pomerenk, Jared Berul, and Dylan Hayes, whose strong gloves and baseball fundamentals will make them key parts of the 2013 squad as they vie for more playing time with a strong group of current sophomores and freshmen. Fellow junior Nick Bode, who filled in well behind the plate in 2011 and will give Whitman a solid presence there again next season. Soph Ben Castagnetti, who got his feet wet at the varsity level and figures to be a two-year starter beginning in 2013, joined by Max Steinhorn, who saw varsity action at the end of last year but missed all of this season with a basketball injury. And Alex Cladouhus – expected to get major innings on the mound as a sophomore next year – plus a group of other strong players coming up from the JV squad, which finished 10-2 and strung together two five-game winning streaks around a midseason lull that paralleled that of the varsity team.

Finally, a word about the coaches, led by Joe Cassidy, who has compiled a record of 70-27 in his five seasons at Whitman while winning over the hearts and minds of his players, both current and past, with his leadership skills. Assistants TJ Caswell – who saw this crop of seniors through their entire careers, not to mention mentoring some as the Pyle MS softball coach – and Tom Berlin holding down the first base coaching box, plus pitching maven Pat Skellchock, whose arrival in 2011 coincided (and not by accident) with a major uptick in Whitman prowess on the mound. And finally, Steve Sutherland, JV coach extraordinaire and groomer of future varsity stars, for whom a 10-2 season is par for the course and more than three losses is an aberration.

But the numbers, of course, only tell part of the story – of a very close group of players and coaches whose success on the field was closely tied to their kinship and support for one another. Who took their wins with grace (for the most part) and their relatively few losses hard (though the three co-captains still managed to get through their song and dance routines in the “Mr. Whitman” competition with aplomb just two hours after the end of their baseball careers), and who will look back on 2012 as a very special season. So, to quote that eminent philosopher Jim Morrison, “this is the end” for the seniors headed off to schools from Massachusetts and Connecticut to Maryland and Pennsylvania and Delaware to Michigan and South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana – and for their parents after witnessing more than a decade of all kinds of baseball competition, not to mention long drives and consistently mediocre hotel rooms and dining options. Although given both the success and closeness of the Whitman baseball program, many are bound to return in future seasons, beginning with 2013.

2012 Pitching Statistics

2012 Offensive Statistics

2012 Deffensive Statistics