16U Spartans Cap Strong Season With League Title

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Severna Park High School is known for its baseball excellence and performing at the highest level. A significant key to that success is the Severna Park Spartans 16U summer team.

This summer’s Spartans were primarily rising juniors with a few rising sophomores aged 15 and 16 who played well against older competition. The Spartans went 21-7 overall and were runners-up at the sixth annual Firecracker Spectacular in Salisbury in early July.

Following a successful regular season in Mickey Mantle League play, the Spartans defeated Broadneck 5-1 in the league’s playoff final at Severna Park High School in mid-July to win the postseason championship.

Severna Park played from behind for most of the game until the bottom of the sixth inning when Sean Foreman hit a sacrifice fly to give the Falcons a 2-1 lead.

“With it being only a one-run game, I knew our offense would eventually get going. Too many quality hitters,” head coach Dave Ferris said. “While the Broadneck pitcher was doing well, he eventually would wear down, they would have to replace him, and we would have an advantage.”

The floodgates opened, and Severna Park tacked on three more runs in the inning to make it a 5-1 lead. At that point, the Spartans could smell victory.

“Our offense is just too good to hold us down very long,” assistant coach Jim Christy said. “It was a team effort throughout the season. We were missing several key players in the championship game to include Ben Horgan, our starting shortstop and our starting second baseman, and season-leading hitter Dylan Volpicelli (.545 batting average), but the next man up stepped up and filled the void. We had solid defense, turning two double plays, tremendous pitching with Connor Eaton and Sean Foreman, and timely hitting when we needed it. We came from behind many times this year and no one ever gave up.”

Severna Park’s roster of Foreman, Horgan, Volpicelli, Michael Bowles, Sam Bradshaw, Frederick Cobb, John Creps, Drew Crowley, Brad DeMoss, Connor Eaton, Kane Fairweather, Brandon Kiefer, Nick Marsella, Tucker McDonough, Jimmy Miller, Ben Peacock, Greg Tacyn, Hunter Verreault and Clay Weaver was led by Severna Park JV head coach Dave Ferris. Alongside Spalding JV head coach Joe Zimmerman and Spalding assistant coach Jim Christy, Severna Park held a distinct coaching advantage with three high-level high school coaches.

Ferris has kept the baseball skills of future varsity players sharp through summer play with the Spartans over the years, and he sees a strong group looking to make an impact and a state-title run next spring as varsity Falcons.

“Tremendous group of sophomores, many of which have played four different seasons for me,” said Ferris. “Their energy, commitment and leadership served as the nucleus for an outstanding season. They’re pretty good baseball players too.”

View high-resolution prints and downloads of photos in this gallery. Action photos by Colin Murphy

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