PHS Baseball, Softball Giving Opponents a Fight

Pikesville High School baseball and softball teams have been getting plenty of offense in the first part of the season, but they’re still working to find victories.

After winning a few games at the beginning, the softball team has struggled in recent games.

are 3-7 after their first 10 games and averaging 10.3 runs per game, much better than last year, when offense wasn’t an easy thing to find.

The Panthers have been shut out just once and even scored eight runs versus a good Kenwood team in a recent game. That’s been a big difference from last year’s team, which simply couldn’t score as much.

"Hitting and putting base-runners on have been strong areas for us this year," said first-year Pikesville coach Alison Becker. "Additionally, we are playing with our competitor and are truly playing like a team."

Becker also said that Jessica Rubin, Emily Starobin and Krystal Baxter have been leading the team in on-base percentages and helping the offense throughout. On defense, catcher Michelle Silver has fared well.

The baseball team also has been very competitive but suffered a few tough losses, including one earlier this week to . The Panthers took a 2-0 lead early and then scored two runs in the top of the seventh to take the lead before the Golden Eagles added two in the bottom half for a 6-5 victory.

Mitch Goldstein went 2-for-4 (double and triple) and added two RBI in the win. Sammy Hankoff also added two hits and an RBI. Seth Kopel and Zach Greenberg both got one hit and one RBI.

Dane Epstein started and went five innings, giving up three runs on five hits. Kopel pitched the final two innings and allowed three runs on four hits. Even though he struck out four in two innings, Kopel took the loss.

First-year coach David Kopel’s team stood at 4-6 after 10 games, and he said he's pleased with how hard they're working to improve.

"They are like sponges, soaking up all the new information provided to them during practices and during game-time situations," he said. "The regular season is really a preparation for the playoffs so everyone, every player on the team can showcase their talents."

On track

In last weekend's tough , the host Panthers won one event. It came on the boys' side where junior Andre Pollard captured the pole vault.

Pollard won with a vault of 12 feet, 6 inches, one of the metro area’s better efforts this season. Dan Dolya also helped Pikesville by finishing fourth in that event—he vaulted 11 feet.

The combination of Pollard and Dolya gave Pikesville 14 of its 21 team points on the boys' side. The Panthers finished in 11th place overall at the meet.

Reservoir (Howard County) won the team title with a late rally, and finished first on the girls' side.