Roosevelt Sweeps Parkdale

After hitting a tough stretch of their schedule that saw them drop four games — including a pair of Prince George’s County 4A contests — the appear to be firmly back on track.

The Raiders’ offense came out hot to open Thursday’s doubleheader at Parkdale and never relented, as Roosevelt outscored the Panthers by a combined tally of 38-6, to sweep the two games. The Raiders won the opener 27-1 and the nightcap 11-5.

The victories helped Roosevelt — which didn't lose a league game all last season — to keep pace with Bowie as the season winds down.

“I told [the team] if we win out, we’ve got a share of the league title,” Roosevelt coach Andrew Capece said, “and this was probably our biggest challenge left on the schedule today.

"So, I tried to convince them that Parkdale’s got some good players and they’ve beat some good teams," he said, "They beat Laurel, who beat us, so I think they came in here and expected them and knew that they were capable of beating us if we didn’t play a good game.”

Roosevelt (13-4 overall, 13-2 in the Prince George’s County 4A) wasted little time getting started, as they hit two home runs in the first inning of Thursday’s opening game en route to a six-run lead.

Senior pitcher Matt Chernesky pitched all five innings before the game was halted, due to the 10-run mercy rule, to pick up his fourth victory of the season.

“Today was really important because we’re tied with [Bowie] in the league,” Chernesky said, “and if we lose one more game, they’re probably going to get the No. 1 seed."

I don’t know how they do the tiebreaker, but we’ll just see what happens with that," he said. "[Today] the pitchers did a good job and the hitting came together, so it was all good.”

The Raiders fell behind early in Game No. 2, after Parkdale senior outfielder Vincent “Scooter” Jenkins hit a two-run home run off of Roosevelt junior pitcher Bobby Browning in the first inning.

The Panthers’ lead was short-lived, though. Roosevelt scored five runs in the second inning and five more in the third, to put the game out of reach.

“The second game when we got behind it wasn’t that bad,” Chernesky said. “I mean, it was only 2-0. The home run was — not to discredit the kid, but on most fields, that doesn’t go out."

"Bobby pitched well, and he kept throwing strikes and we just had to stay in the game," he said. "Here, it’s just tough with the fences being so short, especially on the pitchers — it’s good for the hitters. But I thought we did a good job overall today.”

 Roosevelt returns to action on Saturday at home against Suitland.