The Saints will, in fact, go marching in again.
Concordia Prep baseball arrived at Joe Cannon Stadium for Sunday’s Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association C Conference Tournament game facing elimination against rival Key School. But through seven innings — plus four more in extras — the Saints never once accepted the game was over.
After more than three hours of stalemate baseball, Concordia Prep — a young team that started five freshmen — ended the standoff with eight runs in the 12th inning to force a winner-take-all second game Monday with an 11-4 win.
“I can’t say enough about the resiliency,” Concordia Prep coach Peter Couser said. “We talked about only being able to control what we can control, and we got big hits all through the lineup today.”
Extra innings alone accounted for 90 minutes of bright sun and stranded batters. When Saints third baseman Patrik Simons stepped up to bat in the top of the 12th, he put an end to it.
The senior clubbed the third pitch into right field, where Key junior Chris Williams had been making plays look easy all day — but not this one. He bobbled it, and Simons tore around the base paths until he reached third.
Then, another error. Simons didn’t wait. He slid head-first and stayed there, absorbing the impact while his teammates jumped and screamed next to him.
“Top of the order got on base. Bottom of the order made the big plays we needed. Defense was amazing behind our great pitching. So, I’m thrilled,” Couser said. “We never gave up.”
The Saints (14-5) weren’t happy just breaking the 3-3 tie. They wanted to pick it up, stomp it in the fake dirt and bury it.
Concordia Prep pelted pitchers Will Dowton, who allowed two runs and three walks while striking out eight in seven innings, and Sean Boomer with seven hits, including RBIs from Jordan Mentzell, Caleb Couser and Wes Osenburg. Three hit batters resulted in another three runs. A passed ball scored the 11th run before Wyatt Dowton, the third Obezags pitcher of the inning, struck Mentzell out to end the frame.
That triumph has been a long time coming for Concordia Prep. The two MIAA C Conference heavyweights split their regular-season meetings. Last year, Key beat the Saints, 12-1, to win the conference title.
“Nobody expects us to win, and I love that. Because we’re underdogs,” said junior starting pitcher Caleb Couser, who allowed three runs, nine hits and three walks while striking out seven in eight innings. “We can do whatever we need. I trust our guys. We’re close. We love being around each other, which really helps.”
The 12th-inning rally couldn’t have happened if the Saints had given up two hours before.
“They don’t back away from any challenge, including facing our No. 1 and No. 2 pitcher. I expected a really tough game,” Key coach Gary Gallant said. “We left too many runners on base and gave them way too many opportunities to be in this game at the point where they eventually took it.”
Senior pitcher Armand Ortiz tossed a complete game in last year’s title game. But on Sunday, the first-inning nerves resulted in two walks, and an error gave Concordia Prep its first run.
Boomer put Key in control with a two-run double in the bottom of the first. Ortiz struck out two in the top of the second and then walked the runner who’d end up scoring on an infielder’s bobble to tie the score at 2.
“I think it’s tough for any pitcher, including Armand, to know that your fielders might not be able to back you up,” Gallant said. “I think that got in his head a little bit. We need to play better defense [tomorrow].”
Varsity Highlights
Down 3-2, Key forced extra innings when junior Josh Kamins singled to score Ortiz in the seventh. But Concordia Prep never wavered.
“Having them stay calm in big moments, they’ve done such a good job,” Caleb Couser said. “We’ve struggled in the end of the year with the bottom of our lineup, a lot of those freshmen, they weren’t getting hits. Today, they did just what they needed to.”
The Saints expect that level-headedness will translate to Monday’s winner-take-all game. Both teams find themselves in a bit of a pitching bind, but more so Key; the Obezags used four pitchers on Sunday. But Gallant believes his freshman, Dowton, will have plenty in the tank to make the start. Gallant thinks Williams and senior Lachlan Armstrong could take the hill, too.
“Hopefully we come back tomorrow with a fresh start and mentality,” Gallant said. “We played well all season long to put ourselves in [as the] No. 1 [seed]. The benefit is being able to live to another day.”