By Allie Pino ’15

The Warriors’ baseball team started their season shaky found their way and made it all the way to the state championship game. The Warriors lost a heartbreaker to Chesapeake by a score of 2-0 on May 23 at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen.

“I knew that we had the pitching to go deep into the playoffs so the run that we made was not a surprise to me,” said Coach Sean Davis.

Sherwood failed to capitalize on several scoring chances against the Cougars. The Warriors managed only two hits and left seven runners on base, five of them in scoring position. Through the first two innings, graduating senior Brady Adam was able to avoid trouble. But in the third, the Cougars finally broke through. The Chesapeake pitcher, Andrew Spinneweber, stroked a lead-off double into the left field corner. Adam then hit the next batter before both runners completed a successful double steal. A single scored both runners to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead. It was the last hit that Adam would allow.

To get to the championship, the Warriors triumphed over Eleanor Roosevelt by a margin of 10-0 May 20 at the University of Maryland. Graduating senior Matt Chanin threw a no-hitter, striking out 16 batters with a commanding fastball and slider. On May 17 at Perry Hall, a late inning rally gave Sherwood a 6-3 victory. Graduating senior Brian Reich pitched five tough innings, leaving Adam to finish off the last two. Key situational hitting provided enough offense to capture a regional title.

“With the new pitching coach our pitching has gotten better and left us with the best earned run average in the state,” said Reich.

In the first two games of the playoff run, the Warriors won by a score of 6-1 on May 14 against Paint Branch. Adams shut down the Panthers, allowing no runs, three hits and striking out 11 batters in six innings. Chanin drove in three runs, reaching base three times including a solo home run in the fourth inning and a two-run single in the fifth. He also scored two runs. Reich closed the game, only allowing one run. On May 12 at Sherwood, the team defeated Howard 4-2. Chanin pitched six strong innings, allowing no earned runs, three hits and striking out six batters. Sherwood scored on RBIs by Adam, junior Jake Paholski and graduating senior Patrick Dunn.

“I knew at the beginning of the season that we had the pitching and defense to go far in the playoffs; it was just a matter of whether or not we would get the bats going,” said Chanin. “We really picked it up offensively once playoffs came around which helped us get to Ripken.”

With many graduating seniors on the team, including Reich, Chanin and Adam, the team is going to have to learn to perform without these key players. The rising juniors and seniors will have to work together and practice hard to continue to play like they did this year. “We are graduating our three major pitchers.  We are going to have to see which younger guys are going to step up.  We have a lot of young talent; it’s just a question of who will step up,” said Davis.