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Tuesday night saw a Potomac District showdown between Tuscarora and Heritage (Leesburg) as the Huskies hit the road to take on the Pride on a cool evening. Tuscarora started junior righty Josh McCusker (Coastal Carolina) on the bump and Heritage went with senior righty Ryan Sloyer. 

Both teams scored early, Tuscarora got things going quickly, loading the bases with no outs in the first. Sloyer did a good job limiting the damage, allowing a SAC fly and an RBI groundout. In the bottom of the first, Ian Tennyson led the game off with a double and the Pride did a good job of hitting situationally to get him over and then drive him in on a groundout. After 1, Tuscarora led 2-1.

The next few innings were uneventful as Sloyer settled in to put up scoreless innings in the second, third, and fourth and McCusker matched him with scoreless second and third innings. Heritage tied the game in the bottom of the fourth as a 2-out single and then an error on a steal attempt put the tying run on third, and Colin Shue drove it in with an RBI single that fell just out of reach of the shortstop. 

Tuscarora answered in the top of the fifth, retaking the lead on a Kyler McKeever two-out RBI single. That lead was short lived, an error and a single got the bottom of the fifth going for Heritage, but a strikeout and a caught stealing gave McCusker a chance to get out of the inning with the lead until Grant Barberich (Mary Washington) tied the game with a sharp single to left. McCusker began to fade at that point and would walk the next four hitters, forcing in two more runs, before ultimately getting a strikeout to end the inning with Heritage leading, 5-3.

Sloyer worked a perfect sixth and got the first out in seventh before exiting the game under the 100 pitch threshold and with one runner on. Junior Nick Harris was able to finish the game and lock down the victory for the Pride, who have opened the season 4-1 and will travel to Loudoun Valley on Friday.

Sloyer was the winning pitcher, going 6.1 IP, 3 R, 3 H, 3 K, 3 BB while also drawing 2 BBs at the plate. Barberich was 1-3 with an RBI and Shue was 1-2 with a BB and 2 RBIs. McCusker took the loss and finished with a line of 5 IP, 5 R, 5 H, 5 K, 5 BB, but the line was much better after the fourth. He also was 0-1 with 2 BBs at the plate. McKeever finished 2-4 with an RBI.

 

Tuscarora