ROCKVILLE — Reservoir baseball stifled opposing offenses all season long behind a dominant pitching staff and strong defense. The second-seed Gators entered Tuesday evening’s Class 4A state semifinal against third-seeded Walter Johnson, allowing an average of 1.61 runs per game.
Reservoir threw one of its two aces, senior Matt Russell, a Towson University commit. However, the Wildcats also threw their ace, Nolan Ross, who will play collegiately at Dickinson. In a duel between two aces, Ross outshined Russell with pure dominance.
The Walter Johnson starter put together a dazzling 13-strikeout performance as he allowed just two hits and overwhelmed the Gators with his fastball. Conversely, Russell struggled with his command throughout and walked six in five innings of work.
Walter Johnson scored seven runs in the sixth inning to break the game open and closed out a commanding 10-0 win in six innings. The Wildcats will face fourth-seeded Urbana in the Class 4A state championship game Friday night in Bowie at Prince George’s Stadium. The Hawks upended top-seed Broadneck 9-7 in a 13-inning marathon in the night’s other semifinal.
“He mixes really well, we knew he was a great pitcher,” Reservoir coach Adam Leader said of Ross. “We worked to try to get to a place but without having somebody who throws like that, it’s difficult to do. I think our approaches were pretty good for the most part. I thought his fastball was a little faster than we were told about and our guys had trouble catching up. We haven’t really seen anything like that this year, so it’s difficult to emulate.”
The Wildcats didn’t hit the ball all over the park with just five hits, instead doing their damage with small ball. Leader and his Gators teams are typically renowned for their small ball prowess, but Walter Johnson executed that flawlessly. They ran four suicide squeezes and scored a run on each one as they didn’t miss a bunt the entire game. Bunting effectiveness catalyzed their seven-run inning that broke the game open.
Reservoir had its best chance to get on the board in the second. The Gators loaded the bases with Blake Smoot at the plate and ahead in the count, 3-0. However, Ross battled back to strike out Smoot and didn’t face any other danger the remainder of the evening.
While the Gators ran into an unstoppable ace, the impact that their two aces, Russell and Gavin Metrick, left on the program can’t be understated. They were the lynchpins in the rotation that pushed Reservoir to a 20-win season, including 15 straight wins and a share of the Howard County championship. They also spearheaded the Gators’ lineup at the top of the order in the No. 1 and 2 spots, respectively.
“We wouldn’t be playing today if it wasn’t for those two guys,” Leader said. “That’s what I told Matt before the game. Earlier in school, he was a little nervous and I said, ‘Listen, regardless of a win or loss today, we don’t play without you and what you’ve done this year.’ Those two and their leadership between on the mound or hitting, just really led this team in a great way. It was something that we needed this year. They are such great kids and workhorses. Their future is really bright and I’m excited that we have them for this year.”
Although Tuesday’s result is a bitter end, the Gators put together one of the best seasons in program history. They reached the state semifinal for just the third time in the program’s 23-year history and came a long way from a premature playoff exit in the regional semifinals last season.
The losses of Metrick and Russell will no doubt make a significant impact and be difficult to replicate, particularly in the Gators’ rotation. However, Reservoir is graduating only three starters and remains optimistic about replicating its offensive and defensive production in the future.
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WJ- 0 2 0 0 1 7- 10 5 0
R- 0 0 0 0 0 0- 0 2 1
WP: Nolan Ross; LP: Matt Russell.
2B: WJ: Nolan Ross, Ethan Hsu, Sam Weston; Re: Ben Tzuker.