Because of weather and field conditions the Garrett Laker baseball team had to take their home playoff game on the road at Frederick Community College and play CCBC-Essex in the second round of the DII Region XX playoffs. #4 Garrett defeated #5 Essex 5-2. Essex defeated Montgomery College in the #5 v.s. #8 matchup on Saturday 9-6 at Essex. Laker right-hander Michael Joyce went the distance, giving up two unearned, three hits, walking none while striking out ten Knights batters. The Lakers got on the board in the 4th inning when Colby Johnson walked and Quintin Smith was hit by a pitch. After a strikeout, Nate Darwin hit a ball down the left field line and got by the Knights left fielder to put Garrett up 2-0. Essex tied the game in the top of the sixth on an error and a ground out. Garrett got back in front in the bottom of the 7th when Brandon Lucas led off with a double, Darwin bunted Lucas over to third and Tanner George delivered a sac fly to score Lucas and give the Lakers a 3-2 lead. The Lakers added on in the 8th as Tim Hanible singled. After a strikeout, Juan Pinero singled to put runners on first and second. Then the Lakers used back to back errors by the Knights and a wild pitch to push across two runs to give Joyce a 5-2 lead going into the ninth inning. That's all the big right-hander would need as he got a ground out and two strikeouts to send the Lakers to the DII Region XX final four. The #4 Lakers will travel to the #1 seed Skip Jacks of Chesapeake College on Monday, game time is 3:30pm. "What a game," says Head Coach Eric Hallenbeck. "They had their dude on the mound and we had our dude on the mound. Both guys went at it for nine innings. We executed, got a couple of breaks and now we are moving on. That's baseball. Proud of my guys. We worked hard all year to host at least one playoff game and because of weather this week we had to host on the road. My guys didn't blink an eye. That's what we do here, adjust and control what we can control. Joyce was locked in all day. Had a thought maybe taking him out after the 8th but when he came off the mound I looked at him, he looked at me and I said your game big guy", says Hallenbeck.