Keyser, W.Va. — It wasn’t just a sweep. It was a statement.
In a Friday doubleheader defined by relentless offense and suffocating pitching, Harford Community College overpowered Potomac State by scores of 14–2 and 13–2, controlling nearly every inning in dominating fashion.
In the opener, Harford wasted little time setting the tone. In the opening inning, Jeremy Reyes sparked the attack, coming around to score on a Derek Poole RBI single that was aided by a Potomac State miscue, giving the visitors an early 1–0 edge.
The Owls kept rolling in the third inning, when Poole turned the game on its head with a towering grand slam, part of a five-run surge that stretched the lead to 6–0. The hit parade continued as Nathan Wingenroth followed with an RBI double, piling on against Potomac State starter Gavin Bennett.
An eight-run fifth inning erased any doubt. James Asmus and Danny Scullion delivered back-to-back RBI doubles, AJ Palumbo drove in another on a fielder’s choice, and Ty Mercado and Poole added run-scoring hits. Jack Fitzpatrick capped the inning with a two-run homer, pushing the margin to 13–0 before the Catamounts could respond.
Potomac State showed brief life in the bottom half of the fifth when John Mallow laced a two-run double to plate Seth Healy and Lex Wescott.
On the mound, Kyle Tuthill was in complete command. The right-hander scattered eight hits over five innings, allowing just two runs while striking out four, efficiently working through traffic and never allowing Potomac State to build momentum.
Game Two followed the same script—only this time, with Harford methodically pulling away inning by inning.
Potomac State struck first, as John Mallow opened the scoring with a solo inside the park home run in the bottom of the first. But that early spark was quickly extinguished.
Harford responded with a three-run second inning, highlighted by RBI doubles from James Asmus and Jaxon Kehoe to seize control at 3–1. The Owls added three more in the third, using a combination of timely hitting and productive outs—Fitzpatrick’s RBI double followed by sacrifice flies from Asmus and Wingenroth stretched the lead to 6–1.
After Callen Miller’s solo homer briefly cut the deficit to four in the fourth, Harford resumed its steady climb. Andrew Noone’s RBI single in the fifth and another run in the sixth pushed the margin to 8–2 before the game broke open once again.
In the seventh inning Mercado delivered a two-run triple, Scullion added an RBI double, and Kehoe capped the frame with a run-scoring single as Harford poured in five runs to put the game out of reach at 13–2.
Starter Ben Christine set the tone with five strong innings, allowing just three hits and two runs while striking out eight. He attacked the zone, kept Potomac State hitters off balance, and handed the game to a bullpen that never wavered. Matt Galli and Peyton O’Brien combined to allow just one hit over the final two innings, closing the door with three additional strikeouts.
Across both games, Harford combined 27 runs on 31 hits, including multiple extra-base hits and two home runs in game one alone. More telling, however, was the dominance on the mound—holding Potomac State to just four total runs while striking out 15 hitters across the doubleheader.