ARISTA!

by Derek Toney

In Spanish, arista means ridge. In Howard County baseball, “The Ridge,” now means champion.

Marriotts Ridge captured the Howard County crown, knocking off defending champ Centennial, 5-2, in Ellicott City Wednesday afternoon. It was the first team championship for the Marriottsville school which opened its doors just three years ago.

Junior Stephen Kahl drove in three runs for the Mustangs (14-5), and junior Tim Blair pitched a complete-game two-hitter. Ben Winter knocked both runs for Centennial (16-4-1), which had its nine-game county winning streak snapped.

The Eagles’ previous loss came against Marriotts Ridge, which reached the Class 1A state semifinals last spring. But the Mustangs feel they’ve been underappreciated this season.

“We haven’t gotten any respect all year,” said Blair. “We beat Howard and Glenelg when they considered for the area rankings, we just beat Digital Harbor which was being hyped up. We’ve beaten Centennial before and haven’t been considered once. We like being underdogs.”

“We just took it to every team,” said Kahl. “We owed it all to our seniors, they’ve really stepped it up.”

Kahl, one of 10 underclassmen on the Mustangs’ roster, came through with a two-run single in the third, scoring seniors Kevin Seker and Kyle Feldman. The Mustangs added two more runs in the inning on a throwing error by Centennial, for a 5-0 lead.

It was more than enough for Blair, who struck two and walked two. Marriotts Ridge coach Paul Eckert said Blair has matured this year into an ace.

“Timmy played a heck of a ballgame, he’s done that all year,” said Eckert. “He’s made a strong argument he’s the best pitcher in the county.”

The Mustangs only got five hits off Centennial pitching, but the Eagles allowed seven walks and hit two batters. Starter Ben Winter walked the bases loaded in the opening inning, then hit Kahl to forced in Dean Yang.

Seker was hit by pitch with an out in the third inning, then Feldman singled to left. After a wild pitch advanced Feldman and Seker to second and third, respectively, Kahl knocked both in with a single to right.

Winter was relieved by Dan Ciraolo after a walk to Andrew DiFerdinando. The Mustangs had runners at first and third when a throw from deep third by Eagle third basemen Daniel Powers got past first basemen Joey Couch, scoring Kahl and Nick Marinelli.

James Cowan got the Eagles’ first hit off Blair with a one out double in the fourth, and scored on groundout by Winter. The Towson University bound senior singled home Richard Duffy in the sixth.

“They came here all pumped up and held it throughout the game,” said Winter, whose team was denied a fifth county title in six seasons. “He [Blair] threw a great game, he was hitting his spots when he needed to, and I wasn’t hitting my spots.”

Eckert said last year’s run to the state semifinals helped set the tone for the Mustangs. Now in 2A, Marriotts Ridge has the No. 1 seed for the South Region playoffs.  Needless to say, the Mustangs will have some momentum heading into next week.

“I told the kids that this is a day you’ll always remember,” said Eckert. “There’s nobody else that’s going to be the first team to ever win a county championship at your school. You’re a part of that, you’re a part of history.”

Howard County Baseball Championship
Marriotts Ridge 5, Centennial 2
Marriotts Ridge  104 000 0-5 4 2
Centennial        000 101 0-2 2 2
Blair and Feldman; Winter, Ciralo, Couch and Patti. 2B: Centennial-Cowan.