VA/DC Scout Blog: West Potomac at Hayfield 6/7

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Monday afternoon saw the beginning of VHSL Postseason play as the Gunston District semifinals took place with Hayfield hosting West Potomac. Both teams sent sophomores to the mound to open the game, West Potomac going with righty Brody Shawn and Hayfield going with lefty Kenny Michaels.

The Wolverine offense got off to a big start, loading the bases to open the game with a walk and a pair of infield singles. A wild pitch brought the first run in and then two more scored on an error. West Potomac picked up two more runs in the inning, including one on an RBI single off the bat of Franklin Muendel. Five runs ended up scoring before Michaels was able to get out of the inning. 

The first half of the game was all West Potomac. Shawn was tough, allowing just one hit in 4 innings while striking out 8. He did walk 5, but the strike zone was rather interesting all day. The Wolverines added 1 more run in the second and four more in the fourth, with Joey Humphries delivering the big blow with a 3-run home run in the fourth to push the West Potomac lead to 10-0.

The game shifted in the fifth. West Potomac pulled Shawn after four innings to keep his pitch count and rest days down. Hayfield responded by scoring a run on a wild pitch in the fifth and the Hawks avoided getting run-ruled. Senior lefty Joey Hartz entered the game for Hayfield and shut down the West Potomac bats for the rest of the game.

In the bottom of the sixth, Hayfield was able to scratch two more runs with RBI singles by Ethan Snyder and Braden Keeney. The Hawks had a runner thrown out at the plate to end the inning having cut the deficit to 10-3. 

In the bottom of the seventh, Hayfield loaded the bases with no outs but then hit into a double play and that took a lot of wind out of the comeback's sails. Hayfield did push across another run to make the final score 10-5, but ultimately West Potomac was able to hang on to the win. West Potomac advances to the District Championship game, where they will take on Annandale.

Shawn went 4 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 8 K, 5 BB and was also 2-5 at the plate. Humphries was 2-3 with a HR and 3 RBIs. Muendel was 2-4 with an RBI and Reid Salley was 2-4. Harry Smith (Virginia Wesleyan) was 2-5. For Hayfield, Hartz went 3 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 0 K, 0 BB. Keeney was 1-3 with an RBI and Snyder was 1-3 with an RBI.

West Potomac

Brody Shawn RHP / West Potomac, VA / 2023 Shawn is 6-3 with a projectable lanky athletic frame that has a lot of room to add strength. He throws from a lower three-quarters arm slot with a short, loose very quick arm action and easy effort to his delivery. Shoulders are slightly uphill and closed, lands on line with an athletic finish, creates deception in his delivery and hides ball. Fastball was 87-91 with some downward plane and bit of late hard armside run. Sat mostly 91 in the first inning and held velocity for the most part throughout his four innings. Did not throw an offspeed pitch in the game, showed a change-up in warm-ups that had good armspeed and late hard fade. Had five walks in the game but control was much better than that, strike zone was questionable at best. Showed control and some ability to move his fastball around the zone. /var/www/html/login/modules/Playerss/shortcodes.json not found

Hayfield

Nicholas Griffin 3B / RHP / Hayfield Secondary, VA / 2023 Griffin is 6-0 with an athletic frame that has room to add strength. He throws from a low three-quarters arm slot with a long loose arm action with some quickness to it. Shoulders are level and closed, some crossfire in his delivery, lands closed with some fall off in his finish. Fastball was 81-83 with some late hard armside run that also got a bit of depth. Slider was 69-70 with good armspeed and sharp 11/5 downer break. Showed ability to throw both pitches for strikes. /var/www/html/login/modules/Playerss/shortcodes.json not found

Kenny Michaels LHP / 1B / Hayfield, VA / 2023 Michaels is 6-3 with a lanky projectable athletic frame that has a lot of room to add strength. He throws from a high three-quarters arm slot with a short, loose quick arm action and easier effort to his delivery. Drop and drive and crossfire to his delivery, creates some deception and hides the ball. Shoulders are level and closed, lands closed with a fall off finish. Fastball was 81-84, touching 85 once, pitch has downward angle to it and gets a bit of late armside run. Breaking ball was 69-75 with good armspeed and gradual 1/7 break, pitch has some shape to it and a chance to improve significantly as it sharpens. Showed ability to back door breaking ball and to back foot it to righties. Also showed ability to attack both sides of the plate with his fastball. Got victimized by well-placed softer contact combined with misplays in the field. Did walk three hitters which didn't help, but really only gave up one well struck ball, and while he didn't get many swing and misses, there wasn't much hard contact. A lot to like here with a lot of room to continue to develop.  /var/www/html/login/modules/Playerss/shortcodes.json not found