Washington County a 12-2 nightmare for Italy

/Pony Baseball

Washington County manager John Przybylinski has been telling his kids leading into the Pony League World Series that he wants them to be a nightmare to play against in all facets.

After shaking off some early nerves, they started unleashing the traits of a team that could be a pain to face going forward.

Their running forced Italy into mistakes, the hitting picked up and the pitchers were lights out in a 12-2 win in five innings for Washington County Saturday in its debut game at a packed Lew Hays Pony Field.

“I’ve been preaching to the kids that everybody has dreams to win the world series and we want to be nightmares for everybody,” Przybylinski said. “Whether that’s in the box, on the bases, or on the mound… be a nightmare and we’ll be alright.”

Kaden Harkins smashed an opposite field two-run homer over the right-field fence in the bottom of the fifth, which invoked the mercy rule.

“It was a good feeling,” Harkins said. “I didn’t know if I was going to get a pitch to hit. I’ve had a couple of walk-off homers, but nothing like that one.”

Washington County will play the winner of Sunday’s game between Colombia and Corpus Christi, Texas, 7 p.m. Monday. Italy faces Bay County, Mich. in an elimination game Sunday.

Washington led 4-1 after three innings and broke it open in the fourth by putting up six runs.

They had six hits in the inning, all singles, from Luke Henderson, Carson Simmers, Ryan Lukas, Jackson Greene, Niko Vitale and Ashton Fike. Lukas and Vitale had an RBI each and Washington took advantage of a three-base error on a fly ball in right field on a ball hit by Braxten Thompson. Two runs scored on the play. Thompson later scored on a wild pitch.

It was one of five errors Italy committed.

Washington County felt the nerves too and had a couple early errors, but were able to shake them off.

“I’ve never played in front of a crowd that big,” Harkins said. “You don’t want to mess up, but once you swing and miss or throw a ball, you realize that you’re just playing ball.”

Braxten Thompson started for Washington County and was effective through his 3 1/3 innings. The lefty struck out four, walked two and allowed one unearned run.

“I heard he touched 81 (miles per hour) and when you’re throwing cheddar like that and you have the (curveball) that breaks and a (changeup) to come with it, that makes it challenging for hitters.”

Prior to Washington County’s big inning at the plate in the fourth, Keegan Widenhofer provided two important outs of relief in the top half.

Widenhofer entered with the tying run at the plate and one out and promptly struck out two hitters in a row to squash the threat.

After the second strikeout Widenhofer pumped his fist before he was greeted by teammates.

“I went in there confident, but I was a little nervous because it was my first time being on a field with that big of a crowd,” Widenhofer said. “In my mind I just told myself to get up on the hill, throw strikes and get outs.”

Washington County scored a run in the bottom of the first thanks to two errors by Italy.

Italy tied the game in the third without having a ball leave the infield. Marco Giuisti led off with an infield single that rolled dead just behind the mound. Thompson walked Edorado Angioni to put two runners on. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch. Riccardo Belicchi hit a weak grounder to first with the infield in. Harkins fielded it and went to the bag. Giusti raced home and slid in safely ahead of Harkins’ throw to the plate.

Guisiti had a pair of hits for Italy and a nice diving catch in center field.

Henderson, Lukas and Vitale had two hits each. Every player in the starting nine reached base at least once.

Getting the job done in five innings was a bonus for Washington County, because it will have nearly its full pitching staff on Monday.

“Keegan is available Monday, so we’ll have everyone but Braxton,” Przybylinski said. “Only using those two guys and getting the 10-run rule was big. We had a plan moving forward in case that didn’t happen, but thank good lord it did.”