Strasburg 'O' has no mercy on Bull Run

By Dennis Atwood -- sports@nvdaily.com

STRASBURG -- The Strasburg Rams baseball squad continued its devastation of opponents, extending a winning streak to seven games by overwhelming Manassas Park, 16-0, on Friday.

It was the second consecutive night of misery for the Cougars (6-5, 3-3 Bull Run), who were victimized on their home turf by the Rams, 15-5, on Thursday.

Five of the seven wins in the streak involved the Rams getting leads of 10 or more runs, triggering the mercy rule and shortening the games to five or six innings.

Strasburg (14-2, 7-0 Bull Run) lashed out 14 hits, using small ball and executing a bunting clinic by laying down four for base hits.

"We felt like [bunt opportunities] was something they were giving us," Strasburg coach Jeff Smoot said. "And we were fortunate there, but we still had to execute, obviously."

Three of those bunts came in consecutive at-bats in the second inning by rightfielder Yoshi Suzuki, shortstop Zach Cover and catcher Derek Buckley.

Strasburg then departed from its small-ball tactic when first baseman Riley McDonald smacked a grand slam well over the fence in straightaway leftfield.

"That was my first grand slam this year. I had two last season," said McDonald, who finished with two hits and five RBIs. "I took the first pitch for a strike and the second one was coming down the middle, so I just gave it my best stroke. It was terrific that those guys bunted ahead of me to load the bases.

"We work an hour to an hour and a half every practice on bunting."

Senior Justin Rush started on the mound for Strasburg and pitched three innings, giving up two singles, striking out six and yielding no walks to earn the win.

"My fastball and curve were working well," Rush said. "I was able to snap off my fastball a little better in the second and third innings. It's terrific to get the offensive production we've been getting, but I try to not let that take my mind off what I have to do on the mound."

Suzuki struck out the side in his two innings of relief work, yielding only a single and a walk.

"We felt like if we got [Rush] out when we did, we've got to come back and play on Tuesday and might have an opportunity to use him if we need to. It gives us another option," Smoot said.

The Rams had 33 at-bats in four innings, with 10 hitters entering the batter's box in the second frame and 13 in the third.

James Slaubaugh started for the Cougars, gave up nine runs on nine hits, and was charged with the loss.

Suzuki finished 3-for-4 with three runs, Michael Reynolds added two hits, two runs and two RBIs and designated hitter Alex Pfeiffer finished 2-for-3 with a double, two runs and two RBIs.

"To some extent I thing we've just been fortunate to score that many runs," Smoot said. "I don't know that, certainly, we're that good a baseball team. I can't believe any of us think we're good enough to be complacent. I don't think any of our players think that way. We certainly need to get a lot better. I think we still have a difficult row to hoe. We need to get better in about everything we do."