MARRIOTTSVILLE, MD — For six innings on Thursday, the Chapelgate baseball team was in control.
With ace lefty Michael Patton on the mound, and their bats alive, the Yellowjackets took a 12-6 lead into the seventh inning, needing only three outs before six runs crossed the plate to move on in the MIAA C Conference playoffs.
But then everything changed.
Down to their last three outs, the Sabres scored six runs on four hits, two walks and an error — two of those runs coming with two outs — then eventually won the game after scoring an unearned run in the top of the 9th.
"The baseball Gods just didn't smile on us today. We just didn't play our best today and they took advantage of it," said Chapelgate coach Jeremy Story, whose team had numerous hard-hit balls find Sabre gloves in the late innings. "We did a very good job of hitting the ball hard and putting it in play ... those balls just seemed to find leather."
After the Yellowjackets took an 11-5 lead in the bottom of the fifth, it looked like they might run away with a playoff victory. Left fielder Chang Min Lee had doubled twice and driven in five runs, and the Sabres melted down defensively, committing four messy errors in the fifth leading to three runs.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Yellowjackets added another run when Patton tripled and scored on a Dillon Story groundout, followed by a Wayne Baldwin double.
Jonathan D'Alessio (1-3, 3 BB, 4 R) and Josh Butler (2 H, 2 RBI, 2 R) also had big offensive performances.
Patton had scattered four singles and five walks through the first six innings, allowing only two earned runs, but the Sabres' bats caught fire in the seventh, when Johnny Kleisas led off with a double, Cole Koski walked, James Hastings hit a two-run double, Sammy Weisman laced an RBI triple, Connor Murray (3-5, RBI, 2 R, 3 SB) singled with two outs, Ryan Hollis hit an RBI triple and scored the tying run on an error off the bat of Tucker Broujos.
After that, Hastings — who came into the game in the third inning for Saints Peter and Paul — locked it down, retiring seven straight batters between the seventh and ninth innings, assisted by some excellent defensive plays, including a diving catch of a line drive in the eighth by Weisman, the first baseman, and a pick off the dirt by the shortstop, Koski, in the ninth.
"We just couldn't get the ball to drop in when we needed it to in the last few innings," Story said. "You have to give it to (Saints Peter and Paul), they did a good job of staying in the game and continuing to put the ball in play and finding grass."
Luke Heming pitched two solid innings of relief for the Yellowjackets, allowing only one hit, an RBI single by Broujos with two outs in the top of the ninth.
Baldwin (3-5, 2B, 2 R), who is committed to play for Hood College next year, finally broke through with a line drive single with one out in the ninth. He then advanced to second on a groundout and stole third base, but the game ended when Koski made a clean play on a ground ball to short as Baldwin sprinted toward the plate representing the tying run.
With the loss, Chapelgate drops into the elimination bracket, where it will host Gerstell Academy (4-8) on Monday at 4 p.m. But the Yellowjackets are now determined to earn a rematch with the Sabres in the championship game.
"I am really proud of my players for showing the composure that they did after a heartbreaking loss like that. They really showed me something about their character," Story said. "We'll pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and continue fighting ... I have a feeling that we'll get another chance at (Saints Peter and Paul) one way or another."
SPP (9-6) 012 201 601 - 13 10 4
CCA (9-4) 034 131 000 - 12 11 6
Koski, Hastings (3) and Hastings, Broujos (3). Patton, Heming (8) and Story.
2B: SPP — Kleisas, Hastings. CCA — Lee 2, Baldwin. 3B: SPP — Weisman, Hollis. CCA — Patton.