When asked about the demeanor he takes to the mound, Pikesville junior pitcher-outfielder Isaac Garonzik sounded more like a meditation guru than a talented hurler.
“Whenever I come into pitch, my goal is to be cool, calm and collected,” Garonzik said. “I gathered that philosophy from [current Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher] Paul Skenes of LSU. I saw it in his hat once, so really the goal is just to be relaxed no matter what the situation is. It could be bases loaded and no outs; it could be two outs, 0-2 count, you really need to be relaxed. I try to exude that from my character every day.”
That mindset came in handy Monday as the right-hander toed the rubber with his Panthers clinging to a two-run lead with the tying run coming to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning. After calmly and methodically taking his warm-up pitches with the sun setting ever so quickly behind third base, Garonzik worked back-to-back strikeouts to seal Pikesville’s 7-5 victory against host Franklin.
“The boys have really worked hard,” Garonzik said. “We have a lot of guys who came up this year. We’ve got a lot of juniors. I’m really happy for us to come out here and show what we’ve got. Everyone really showed what their hearts have.”
The Panthers () looked poised to run away with the contest, erupting for five runs in the first two innings to chase Franklin starter Ben Deutschendorf, but the Indians (2-2) rallied for a combined five runs in the third and fourth innings to tie the contest. That’s when Pikesville catcher Ian Davis (2-for-4, three RBIs) smacked a two-run double to deep left field for what proved to be the winning runs.
“It was two strikes, trying to protect a little bit, looking for anything close,” Davis said. “I just found my pitch and ripped it to left field. It felt great to get those two guys around.”
The Panthers struck first with two runs in the top of the first inning on a groundout by Michael Hagan and a single to right center field by Davis. The Davis hit was nearly caught by Franklin center fielder Andy Guzman before dropping out of his glove while diving to his left. Pikesville added three more in the second on an error, a sacrifice fly by Garonzik and a single up the middle by Hagan for a 5-0 lead.
Franklin threatened with runners on the corners in the bottom of the second, but Jackson Roemer struck out Ryan Hartman to preserve the shutout.
Undaunted by that missed opportunity, the Indians snared their first run on a makeshift hit-and-run as Guzman broke for third on an attempted steal as Deutschendorf laced a groundball to third base, pulling the third baseman out of position. Guzman never stopped running and scored, beating the throw home. Two batters later, Bryce Allen smacked a two-run double to deep left field to cut the deficit to 5-3.
With a bases loaded hit by Guzman and a sacrifice fly by Seth Wright, the Indians then tied the score at 5 in the bottom of the fourth — a tie Davis broke in the sixth.
“Just keeping the focus,” Davis said of his team’s late rally. “It’s something that we’ve definitely struggled with a little bit this year”
In the Franklin seventh, after a line out to center field by Deutschendorf, Jacob Wise worked a four-pitch walk against Panthers reliever Tegan Hakim before Garonzik struck out Allen and Matt Guzman looking.
“We just took too many pitches,” Franklin coach Chuck Snee said. “We struck out 11 times and six of them were looking. You can’t do that. I mean you’ve got to put the ball in play. When we put the ball in play, we’re good.
“This is the second game in a row, we’ve had more hits than the team we played against. You’ve got to overcome some of the mistakes we’re making. We’re getting better. We’ll be good by the end of the year.”