Campus News
May 6th, 2025
Lakers lock up division's second seed
Garrett uses Frederick split to obtain first-round playoff bye
Garrett College baseball
Frederick, MD – Garrett College rallied from a 4-1 deficit to beat Frederick Community College, 10-4, to split Friday's baseball doubleheader and lock up the second seed in this week's NJCAA Division II Region 20-West tournament.
The Lakers, who dropped a 3-2 contest in the opener, took control of the nightcap with a five-run fifth inning. Christian Harrington had a two-run double and Angel Oquendo followed with a tying, RBI single. Bryce Madden's run-scoring single put the Lakers ahead to stay, and Conner Blake capped the rally with an RBI hit.
Garrett broke the game open with a four-run sixth that included run-scoring singles by Oquendo and Jonathan Padgett.
"We finally strung some hits together in the fifth and we did the same in the sixth," observed GC head coach Eric Hallenbeck. "We struggled the last week-and-a-half with putting hits together, but we put it together late in Game 2 – better late than never."
Unbeaten Ethan Sebold (6-0) pitched a seven-hit complete game with three walks and two strikeouts. Sebold gave up a three-run, first-inning homer to Tysan Gingerich, but allowed just one run over the last six innings.
"Ethan gives you a chance to win every time he's on the mound," said Hallenbeck.
Garrett pounded seven Frederick pitchers for 15 hits. Seven Lakers finished with two hits apiece: Easton Rhoten (double, two runs), Brandyn Gonzalez (run), Padgett (two RBI), Harrington (double, two runs, two RBI), Oquendo (two runs, two RBI), Madden (two runs, RBI), and Blake (RBI)
Garrett (36-17 overall, 25-11 division) used the win to clinch second place in Region 20-West behind regular-season champion Frederick (45-9, 29-7), which is currently ranked seventh in the country among NJCAA Division II teams. Both Frederick and GC bypass this week's single-elimination play-in round, advancing to the weekend's four-team, double-elimination tournament at Frederick.
"It's important to get to that weekend without having to play an elimination game on Tuesday," said Hallenbeck. "We would have liked to have been the one-seed and get to host [the divisional Final Four], but two-seed also gets a bye. This is the first year since I've been here that we've had a bye and not have to fight through the single-elimination round."
Third-seeded Hagerstown Community College (39-16, 23-13) hosts sixth-seeded Community College of Allegheny County (11-34, 9-27), and fourth-seeded Allegany College of Maryland (32-23, 21-15) hosts fifth-seeded Montgomery College (16-35, 11-25) in Tuesday's opening-round playoff games.
The Region 20-West champion will play the Region 20-East champion May 16-17 in a best-of-three series with a berth in the NJCAA Division II World Series on the line.
Cougars William Gisriel and Luis Perez Alfaro had RBI singles during a two-run third in Friday's opener that wiped out a 1-0 Garrett lead. Andrew Varga's fourth-inning, run-scoring triple stretched Frederick's lead to 3-1.
Evan Hassinger (7-0), third of four Frederick pitchers, earned the win, retiring all six batters he faced with two strikeouts. Matthew Koe earned his fourth save, giving up a run on two walks in the seventh.
Stefan Machkovski (2-2) took the loss, yielding three runs on five hits with three walks in 3 1/3 innings.
GC finished the regular season with four more wins than any Laker squad.
"It was a historic regular season for Garrett College baseball – and what a group to do it with," said Hallenbeck. "They're very good players, but also great people.
"We appreciate everybody's support and following us throughout the season through Facebook, text messages, emails – all the great messages we've received," Hallenbeck added. "We're excited about what's in store for us come playoff time."
ACM 4, Garrett 1
ACM 7, Garrett 5
Cumberland, MD – Nick Falla allowed a run on five hits with 13 strikeouts to improve to 9-2 in last Wednesday's opener.
Vladimir Breton homered while Carson Bradley and Johnny Antonelli each drove in two runs for the Trojans.
Brandon Gonzalez homered for Garrett's only run in the opener.
Josh Regalla and Manuel Cartagena each homered and drove in two runs to power ACM's offense in the nightcap. Gonzalez and Noah Broadwater homered for the Lakers.
