Potomac’s Engles shows potential

Terrence Engles stood on the mound taking his warmup tosses for the top of the ninth inning, trying to keep his right arm as loose as possible.
Engles repeatedly threw to catcher Devin Ivany before retiring two of the three hitters he would face that inning.
Engles had pitched eight and two-thirds innings, the longest outing this season by a Potomac Nationals pitcher.
But he was forced to take the loss after the Frederick Keys scored two runs off him in the third for a 2-0 victory.
Even with the defeat, Engles (1-3) continued to show that he can be a quality starting pitcher. He has allowed two earned runs or less in his previous three outings. His ERA has also shrunk from 6.30 on June 14 to 3.77 following Thursday’s game.
“That’s my goal to keep my team in the game,” Engles said.
Matt Angle scored on Ryan Adams’ double to give the Keys their first run. Adams scored on Brandon Waring’s single to finish the scoring.
After the third, Engles remained committed to attacking Keys hitters. He retired eight straight from the top of the fourth to the top of the seventh. He allowed eight hits, walked one and struck out six. Engles threw 96 pitches, 63 strikes. His counterpart, Nate Nery, threw 93 pitches in six innings.
Engles fanned Billy Rowell before manager Trent Jewett walked to the mound and made a pitching change, bringing in Chris Rivera to retire the final Frederick batter.
Engles left the game to cheers from the 2,124 fans in attendance. The song “Let’s hear it for the boy” played from the pressbox loudspeaker as the pitcher walked from the mound into the Nationals dugout.
“The first three innings, I was overthrowing a little bit,” Engles said. “I was just trying to [make] some adjustments when I was throwing too hard. I made some adjustments to where I kept the ball down.”
The then-Montreal Expos drafted Engles in 2004. He entered this season with a 12-29 record and 5.60 ERA.
The 2009 season, however, has been good to him. Engles started the season at Low-A Hagerstown where he went 4-2, 3.42 before earning a promotion to Potomac on June 5. He won four straight starts from April 30-May 18 and struck out a career-high 12 batters in a May 18 start.
He also enjoyed success in 2008 when he was named Hagerstown’s pitcher of the month in April after going 3-0, 1.89.
“Now that I’m getting older, I’m starting to learn how to pitch more,” Engles said. “The past couple years have definitely helped me out.”
Nery earned the victory as he and Pat Egan combined to limit Potomac (4-4 second half, 41-34 overall) to one hit, a Francisco Plasencia infield single in the fourth.
“When you have an offensive output like that, you don’t anticipate winning much,” Jewett said.