Arts & Sciences senior Marcus Leak is not taking a single moment of his final season of high school baseball for granted, from the practices behind the scenes to the performances seen by others.
His extra work in the batting cages paid off in a big way during Friday's 8-2 victory at Howard.
In the fourth inning, Leak put Patriots on the scoreboard by sending a deep drive over the left fielder's head, with the ball rolling to the warning track for a tying two-run double. An inning later, he provided his second straight line drive to left for another RBI, building a five-run lead that the Patriots (3-4) would not squander.
"I have been working a lot," Leak said. "A couple of games I had been taken out of the lineup because I was struggling early on. But I started working harder and harder and coming in on the weekends to work and get better at the plate.
"This game means the world to me and has been my dream. I played for my grandfather's little league team growing up, and ever since then I have loved this sport."
Howard junior starter JK McKevie was sharp in his first three innings on the mound, striking out four of the first six batters he faced. The Hustlin' Tigers pitcher also tripled to deep left field and scored on Devon McKinney's two-run double to the gap in left-center during the first inning.
A rough first didn't faze winning pitcher Nick Luse as the right-hander bounced back to toss four straight scoreless innings. In the fourth, he picked off a runner with a nice move to first and also showed emotion with a fist pump as he spun around after his inning-ending strikeout.
Luse gave way to Bec and Rowan Fitzsimmons, with each recording a pair of strikeouts and a fielding assist in scoreless relief. The visitors were not charged with an error in the game.
"Nick is a competitor. That first inning made him mad, and he came back out and took over after that," Patriots coach Mark Bracher said. "We played really solid defense to back up our pitchers.
"I was really proud of Marcus tonight, too. He has worked extremely hard, and today was the fruits of that work he has put in. His game-tying double gave us a ton of momentum."
The Patriots had nine hits, with leadoff man Xavier Stanley providing two, along with Leak, who sparked a four-run fourth. They added three more in the fifth as Luse led off with an opposite-field double and later scored on a two-run single by Rowan Fitzsimmons.
Howard sophomore Camron James was sharp in relief, striking out seven batters and allowing one earned run over three innings.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.