MORGANZA, MD – Coming into play on Wednesday, May 13, the La Plata Warriors baseball program had been the dominant team in the 3A South. They had won the region for four straight years, and travelled to Morganza one win away from making it 5. The number 1 seed Braves put their ace, Ljay Newsome, on the mound. When these two teams met in the regular season, Newsome pitched for the Braves and they came away with a 14-4 victory.
In the first inning, Newsome showed he was the right man for the job as he struck out two, and got the other batter to fly out to the second baseman. La Plata wasn’t about to give up their region dynasty, as they pitched their ace as well. Austin Mitchell shut the Braves down in order in the bottom of the first. La Plata broke the scoring open in the second when junior catcher Tyler Stockwell reached base on a fielder’s choice, advanced to third on a Wyatt Potter double, and scored on a Taylor Cook ground-out.
Mitchell continued to shut the Braves down in the second inning, and Newsome sat the Warriors down in order in the top of the third. In the bottom of the third, Zach Jerew got Chopticon’s first hit of the game on a line drive into right field. He was stranded there as Mitchell notched strikeouts to end the inning. Chopticon broke onto the board in the bottom of the fourth as Chris Hill walked, stole second, advanced on a teammate’s ground out, and scored on a Ljay Newsome line drive into left center. This evened the score at 1-1. The Warriors had more chances to score, but either strikeouts from Newsome, or very good defense by the Braves limited them to only the one run.
Chopticon’s bats came alive in the bottom of the fifth as they pushed three runs across the plate. Nick Gray started the inning off by hitting a double over the center fielders head. Jerew walked, and then both runners scored when a throwing error by the second baseman was made, and the throw went wide. Mitchell calmed down, and struck out Robby Kidwell to end the inning. The damage was done as the Braves had pushed their lead to 4-1. Newsome allowed two hits in the top of the 6th, but came back to strike out the side.
Chopticon added two runs to their lead in the bottom of the 6th, as they benefitted from three hits and a walk. They pushed their lead to 6-1, and the Warriors had to put up 5 runs for the game to go into the bottom of the seventh. However, Newsome ran out to the mound to continue his complete game. He struck out two in the inning, including the game ending out. After the game, Newsome said “ It feels so good to get past La Plata. But now, it’s onto J.M Bennett.”
The Braves move into the region final against J.M Bennett on Friday, May 15 at 4 p.m.
Contact Max Tayman at news@thebaynet.com