No. 22 Middletown Rolls Past Walkersville

Playing their first game after entering the Power 25 for the first time this season, No. 22 Middletown traveled to Walkersville for a Central Maryland Conference clash Tuesday afternoon. The Knights would prove why they are deserving of the ranking soundly beating the Lions 10-1 behind a strong pitching performance by senior right-hander Luke Pryor (Mount St. Mary's). 

Middletown opened the scoring in the top of the first inning on Cole Crist's (Rollins College) RBI infield single. A second run would score on the same play via an error. The Knights would add a third run in the second as Trevor Woelkers singled to right field to bring in Graham Brown (Potomac State).

Trailing early 3-0, Thomas Fogle smacked a single back up the middle to lead-off the bottom of the third and stole second base three pitches later. Fogle moved to third on a fly out to right field off the bat of Justin Ropp and later scores on a wild pitch. With two outs in the inning, Jaxson Brust tripled but the Lions stranded him at third to end the inning.

Middletown answered right back in the top of the fourth with RBI singles from Brown and L. Pryor to make it 5-1. David Karszen tried to jump start the Lions offense again in the bottom half leading off with a triple to right but that's when L. Pryor really turned it on, striking out the side and stranding Karszen at third.

L. Pryor continued his dominance throughout the remainder of his outing striking out ten in total allowing just the one run on four hits. He was able to keep hitters uncertain at the plate with a high velocity fastball and a nice mix of off-speed.

Middletown’s game plan of putting the ball in play worked well as Walkersville struggled to field the ball at times resulting in several extended innings for the Knights. The last couple innings were dominated by Middletown as they scored two more in the fifth on a bases loaded walk and sac-fly by Brown, and three more in the sixth on a two-RBI single by Robert Fulton and a RBI double by J. Pryor.

Brown (3 for 3, 2 RBI’s, 3 R’s), L. Pryor (2 for 4, 1 RBI, 1 R), and J. Pryor (2 for 3, 2RBI’s) all had great days at the dish for the Knights.