Before the 2A South region title game between the Patuxent Panthers and the Southern Bulldogs, the tension was buzzing. Both teams were throwing the aces of their respective staffs. For the Southern Bulldogs, that meant that they were throwing College Park-committed Truman Thomas.
In the top of the first, he didn’t hold back as he threw his entire arsenal of pitches. He made leadoff batter Arley Shepherd pop out to the first baseman, and then struck out the Crounse brothers.
In the home half of the first, Southern quickly made it’s presence known as leadoff batter Dillon Waters drove a 2-1 pitch, from Patuxent ace Ryan Holtzman, to right center. He was held to a single on the play, but quickly stole second and third on the next two pitches. He was knocked in on a Truman Thomas single up the middle for the first run of the game.
In the top of the second, Patuxent managed to put two runners on base using two walks, but couldn’t hit them around as Bryan Kellaher struck out to end the inning.
Southern pushed two more runs across the plate in the bottom of the second as Jeff Ferguson, and Brendan Carwile scored on a Dillon Waters 2-out double to deep left field.
In the top of the third, Patuxent got it’s first hit when leadoff man Arley Shepherd singled to left field. That single pushed Hugh Cark to second, as he reached base on a walk to lead off the third. Both of those runners scored on an Alex Thompson double to deep left center field. However, he was stranded there when Terry Parks grounded out to the pitcher to end the inning.
In the bottom half of the third inning, Thomas reached on a single, and was batted around by his teammates’ hits and walks. Thomas was one of three Bulldogs to score in the inning, as Billy Albaugh and DJ Coleman also scored in the half inning.
Thomas shut down the Panthers through the rest of the game as he retired six of the last seven batters he faced. His last base runner was a walk to Cam Witte in the top of the fourth inning. On the offensive side of the ball, the Bulldogs were doing everything right. In the bottom of the fourth, Dillon Waters reached base on a walk, advanced on a fielder’s choice and eventually was brought home by a wild pitch.
Thomas reached base on a walk, advanced on a stolen base and scored on a wild pitch.
Thomas successfully shut down the Panthers in the top of the fifth, and sat down on the bench with an 8-2 lead going into the bottom of the fifth. In that inning, Ferguson and Kyle Germannn both reached on walks, and both scored. Ferguson scored on a wild pitch, and Germann scored on a Waters’ sacrifice fly. The younger Waters singled up the middle, bringing Thomas up to the plate. With the score now at 10-2, and a runner on, Thomas’ run represented the region winning run. On a 1-0 pitch, he took a hanging curveball deep to left field and out of the ball park. As he rounded third base, the entire Bulldogs team was waiting for him at home plate to cheer him on and had a massive dog pile at home plate after he touched home plate to score the winning run.
Thomas finished the game 4-4 with a home run, and pitched five innings, giving up 2 hits and striking out 7. Southern moves onto play South Carroll on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
Contact Max Tayman at news@thebaynet.com