The Northeast High School baseball team won five in a row to end the regular season and earn a spot in the county championship. The Eagles topped Arundel, 5-3, to win its first title Thursday and will host a Class 3A playoff game Monday.
Northeast High School baseball coach Adam Bolling, a 1996 graduate, led the Eagles to a county championship victory in his first year at the helm.
John Hodges has been waiting for a chance at redemption for an entire year. In big baseball games, second chances don't come around too often and the
Northeast High School senior pitcher knows it all too well.
He was on the mound when
Arundel beat the Eagles in last year's county final.
It looked like history was going to repeat itself when Hodges' throwing error in the sixth inning cost his team the lead. But when he stepped into the batter's box the very next inning with the bases loaded, Hodges delivered and put all those sour memories behind him.
Hodges registered seven strikeouts in a complete-game effort, but it was his two-run single in the seventh that scored the go-ahead runs in Northeast's 5-3 victory over the Wildcats in the Anne Arundel County championship at Joe Cannon Stadium on Thursday.
The Eagles (17-4), winners of six straight, earned their first county championship title since the game's inception in 1996. Prior to that, Northeast had won 10 county regular-season titles.
"This feels amazing because I've been regretting that loss in the county championship all year," said Hodges, who blasted a shot off the wall in left field to put the Eagles ahead, 4-3, in the seventh.
"I knew if we got a chance to play them again, I wanted to be out there. I wanted the ball from the get-go."
Said Northeast coach Adam Bolling: "I couldn't imagine anyone else being on the mound for us tonight. (Hodges) wanted this one badly and he was going to get it."
Senior second baseman Jesse Leszczynski led off the sixth with a single to left field for Arundel (14-7) and would later steal second base to get into scoring position. Two batters later, senior center field Josh Morris hit a short chopper that Hodges fielded but his side-arm throw to first went wide and Leszczynski scored to give the Wildcats a 3-2 lead.
The Eagles are no strangers to late rallies -- they nipped North County at home six days ago on the final at-bat.
Senior second baseman Josh Rowe got things started with a leadoff walk and junior catcher Josh Rickman (2-for-4 with a double) followed with a bunt down the first-base line. Relief pitcher Brooks Miller picked up the ball but Rickman dodged the tag and slid safely into first.
Right after Arundel coaches instructed their infielders to fall back and defend the hit, senior Brody Kean, the next batter, laid down another bunt and successfully reached to load the bases with no outs.
"We didn't play well defensively," said Wildcats coach Bernie Walter, whose team committed two errors and surrendered all five runs to Northeast in the last three innings.
"It cost us a lot. We made some mental mistakes, gave them opportunities and they're a nice ball club."
After Hodges' shot, senior third baseman Earl Geoheagan ripped an RBI-single to left to plate the final run. Matt Skrenchuk reached base for the third time in the game when he was walked in the bottom half of the seventh but the Eagles' defense took care of the rest.
Sophomore outfielder Steve Jenkins hit an RBI-single to center and senior outfielder Chris Ball drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to right in the third to build a 2-0 lead for the Wildcats.
Arundel would threaten again in the fourth, but Hodges got out of a first-and-second, no-out jam when he struck out senior Nick Elko and forced TJ Brenneman and Morris into a ground out and fly out, respectively.
Hodges said his curveball was working and that the Arundel batters were biting on his outside fastball.
"(Hodges) came out on fire and sort of lost it in the middle," said Bolling, whose team held the Wildcats to five hits.
"We're a big-time team in the beginning and in the end of the game so we usually have to coast in the middle. But they came through tonight and I'm proud of the kids."
In the fifth, senior outfielder Brad Jobst (2-for-3) scored the Eagles' first run on some savvy base running. After his leadoff single, he slide just under the tag when stealing second and reach third on a passed ball. Rickman hit a line drive at Brenneman, the Wildcats' starter, which gave Jobst just enough time to run home.
Junior Kyle Bush took the first pitch he saw to left field to knot the game, 2-2, in the sixth. All together, Northeast put together 12 hits.
Northeast (17-4) 000 011 3 - 5 12 3
Arundel (14-7) 002 001 0 - 3 5 2
WP: NE - Hodges. LP: AR - Brenneman. 2B: NE - Rickman. RBI: NE - Hodges 2, Bush, Geoheagan; AR - Jenkins, Ball.