Friday’s dark, menacing skies, which eventually caused a near hour lightning delay, seemed an apt metaphor for the suddenly scuffling Severn and McDonogh baseball teams with postseason play quickly approaching.
Following nine straight MIAA B wins to open the season, Severn entered Friday’s contest with a split of its last two games, including a recent 10-0 setback to Black Division leader Gerstell. McDonogh, meanwhile, arrived on a two-game losing streak in which the Eagles surrendered a combined 28 runs.
After a thrilling, back-and-forth, eight-inning ballgame, No. 7 Severn pulled out a 10-8 road victory to significantly brighten its season, including securing the top seed in the league’s Red Division.
“Some ups and down to the season, but this is definitely an up,” said Admirals left fielder Caden Blanck, who went 4-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. “This win locks up the one seed for us going into the playoffs. It’s an absolutely huge come-from-behind win for us as a team. Mentally, from Wednesday (a 6-4 loss to St. Paul’s), we were pretty down.”
The No. 15 Eagles (13-10, 9-5 MIAA B) looked to compound Severn’s misery with four runs in the bottom of the first on a single up the middle by Andy Lambert, a two-run single also up the middle by starting pitcher Leo Antwerpen, and a squeeze bunt by Chase Ginsberg.
The Admirals, however, chipped away with a run in the fifth, two in the sixth and then four in the seventh to take a 7-5 lead. McDonogh pushed two runs across the plate in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings, but three more runs in the top of the eighth and three straight outs with a runner on third base engineered by reliever Brendan Szydlik gave Severn (16-3, 12-2 MIAA B) the much-needed victory.
“[We were] scuffling a little bit,” said Szydlik, who knocked in two runs in the pivotal seventh inning. “We were talking about it before the game. We know the team that we can be before going into the playoffs. We knew this game was huge, clinching the one seed for this program. It’s amazing. I just love this feeling right now. I couldn’t be more happy.”
The same could be said for the McDonogh faithful for much of this game as that early 4-0 lead grew to as much as five runs in the bottom of the second inning. That’s when team captain Chase Borz worked a walk, reached second on a passed ball, third on a wild pitch, and then home on a groundout by Michael Gorsky for the 5-0 McDonogh advantage.
McDonogh’s offense, however, would be largely dormant until the seventh inning, supplying Severn with the chance to claw back into the contest.
“The reality is we can’t stall out on offense,” said Eagles coach Zach Rowe, whose squad has locked up a playoff berth as the No. 2 or 3 seed depending on Monday’s season finale against St. Paul’s. “We have to continue to keep putting runs up against a good team that’s in the one spot and capable of coming back. I’m confident in our guys. I think we’re in good shape.”
While the McDonogh offense grew dim, Severn worked its first run of the game in the fifth inning as Fletcher Warner scored on a groundout to shortstop by Max Barney. Warner singled and reached third on a wild pitch.
The Admirals struck for another two runs in the sixth on a bases-loaded wild pitch by reliever Brett McChesney and a run-scoring to left field off the bat of Dominic Medile to cut the deficit to 5-3. McChesney was, however, able to strand two more runners, including one at third, on a fly ball out to right field.
Will Moore and Ginsburg singled to start the McDonogh half of the inning, but both were tagged out on rundowns on the same play with Warner stepping off the mound as Moore broke for third.
Severn completed the comeback by tying the game on a two-run single to left field by Szydlik with the bases loaded and one down and then took its first lead at 6-5 on a wild pitch. That lead grew to 7-5 on a run-scoring double to center field by Lawrence Jacobs.
Undaunted by that Severn rally, the Eagles knotted the score at 7 on a single by Jake Maass and sacrifice fly by Ginsberg.
The back-and-forth contest continued with the Admirals rallying for three runs on a single by Warner, a groundout by Barney, and a sacrifice fly by Blanck for a 10-7 lead.
An error on a strikeout with the international rules runner scoring on a poor throw to first, quickly trimmed that deficit to two, but Szydlik sandwiched two strikeouts around a flyout by Max Rose to end the contest.
“It was a great team effort,” Szydlik said. “I love this team. I love what we’re doing. Obviously, the emotions got high, but man, I was on the mound, and I wanted to win so bad. Things didn’t go my way the inning before, so I had to shut it down for my team. I just love to pull out the win for my team.”
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