Bruin Baseball Wins First Region Title In 30 Years

In the bottom of the eighth inning, members of Broadneck’s lacrosse team shouted from the bleachers at junior left fielder Aiden Casey, encouraging him to “bring him home” and end the game.

Never mind the fact that Casey was on deck, and there was nobody on base.

They were prophetic.

After a one-out single, Casey smashed a hanging slider down the left-field line. The ball landed just fair and went all the way to the fence, pinch runner Cooper Mengel scored with ease, and Broadneck started to party like it was 1995.

Casey’s second hit of the day gave the Bruins a 2-1 walk-off win over defending 4A champion Leonardtown on Thursday and put Broadneck in the state tournament for the first time in 30 years.

“I knew the pitcher kept wanting to throw that slider on the inside corner, and he left one middle-in and I knew that was the one,” said Casey, who was mobbed between second and third base by a black-with-maroon-trim wall of elated teammates after Mengel scored. “I thought it was going to go foul, then I thought the left fielder was going to cut it off; as soon as it got past him and went to the wall, I knew Cooper was gonna score. That moment felt so good.”

To get Casey to his moment took an effort from every player in the order, plus the pitching crew. Leadoff hitter Mike Swick didn’t record a hit, but he walked twice and ran down a deep fly ball in the left-center field gap for a long out. Shortstop Avik Cherry twice flashed the leather to rob Leonardtown of sure hits.

Late on, catcher Nick Cicale scrambled to chase down a dropped third strike and made an off-balance throw that still had pinpoint accuracy. First baseman Noah Forman saved four outs in the field, stretching and leaping to corral throws that were slightly off target. Freshman third baseman Max White made a hard play look routine to end an inning, then led off the home half with a single that turned into Broadneck’s first run. Grant Morsberger singled to lead off the eighth, which proved to be the game-winning run. Luke Smith and Kobe Owen worked counts and tried to drive up the pitch count, and Owen picked up the win with two innings of relief pitching.

“We all just want to give the next guy a chance. The theme for us is to pass the torch,” Casey said. “Every one of us just wants to go 1-0 in our at-bat, every pitch, every game, so the next guy gets a chance to do something.”

Broadneck won this game the same way they won the county championship over Northeast, and the same way they had won so many times over the course of the season: be steady, wear teams down, don’t make mistakes, and punish opponents’ mistakes. Leonardtown made only two mistakes: a throwing error and that hanging slider, and that was all it took for the Bruins to capitalize.

The resiliency and grit helped Broadneck avoid the bugaboo of years past: one bad inning that derailed everything they had worked so hard to earn.

That inning could have come in the sixth on Thursday, when Leonardtown finally got to starter Chase Hannon and knocked him around a little, scoring their only run of the game. But Hannon dug deep, the defense rallied around him, and they got out of the inning with the game still tied.

Hannon pitched six complete innings, allowing three hits and striking out eight.

“None of this is easy at this stage of the season,” said Broadneck coach Matt Skrenchuk. “We believe in our guys, they believe in themselves, and they have a lot of experience in situations like this.”

Broadneck’s third region title in program history comes with a rapid turnaround: less than 19 hours after they finished off Leonardtown, the Bruins — top-seeded in the 4A quarterfinals — host Kenwood at 1:00pm Friday.

Broadneck 2, Leonardtown 1, 8 innings

Leonardtown  000 001  00   -1 3 2

Broadneck    001 000  01   -2 5 0

One out when winning run scored.

Extra-base hits – 2B: Leonardtown, Knott. Broadneck, Casey.

Pitching – Leonardtown: Ludlow 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 5 K; B. Owen (L) 1.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 B, 1 K. Broadneck: Hannon 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 8 K; K. Owen (W) 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K.