Having now been open for three years, Marriotts Ridge High School is running out of firsts. First winning record, first prom, first senior class ... been there, done that. But there are still several important firsts left, and the Mustangs' baseball team (14-5) claimed one of them last Wednesday, winning the school's first team county championship, 5-2, over defending county champion Centennial (16-4).

"All of our sports programs have worked for this. This is just for Marriotts Ridge right here," said senior third baseman John Cruz, who drove in two runs in support of junior starting pitcher Tim Blair.

Blair had beaten Centennial in mid-April with a complete game five-hitter. This time, he was even better.

The right hander flummoxed the Centennial offense, facing 25 batters, just four more than the minimum of 21, allowing only two hits and one earned run.

"It was important to keep it down, get my junk working, because I'm not going to throw it by them. I'm not throwing it 90 miles per hour," Blair said.

Senior catcher Kyle Feldman got a good look at Blair's mix of pitches from behind the dish.

"He's got a lot of stuff, and he knows how to use it. He's as good as any pitcher in this county," Feldman said. "A nice knuckleball ... a nice curve, his fastball hits spots, he does what he needs to do. He doesn't overpower, but he gets the job done."

Blair recorded nine outs on pop outs, including all three outs in the final frame. The two hits Blair gave up were a line-drive double to the gap in right center by James Cowan, and a hard hit grounder by Ben Winter through the left side of the infield that drove in a run.

Winter, the reigning county Player of the Year, has been exceptional this season on the mound, but struggled with his control in the county title game.

The lefty started off with a strikeout, but then walked three of the next four batters and hit one, forcing in a run. He got out of the inning without further damage by recording his second strikeout of the game, and appeared to be on track after facing only four batters in the second. But then came a disastrous third inning for the home team. With one out, Winter hit a batter, gave up a single to Feldman, threw a wild pitch, gave up a two-run single to Stephen Kahl, walked a batter, and was pulled.

Two batters later, Cruz hit a ball hard at third base with two outs and two men on. Dan Powers made a nice backhanded snag near foul territory, but had to hurry the throw which sailed wide of Joe Couch's glove at first base. Two runs scored and Marriotts Ridge held a 5-0 lead.

"Anytime you give them extra baserunners and extra outs, it never really pans out really well for you," Centennial coach Denis Ahearn said. "You throw your best and if (their pitcher is) better than you that day, and you don't have a good day at the plate, they win."

Like Centennial, Marriotts Ridge also made two errors in the game, but neither led to runs, and the Mustangs made the big plays at key moments to get out of innings without damage.

"High school baseball -- it usually boils down to walks and errors, that's throwing the ball and catching the ball. No matter what age it is, it comes down to that," Marriotts Ridge coach Paul Eckert said.

Both teams gained something from the county championship game. For Marriotts Ridge, it is a graduation of sorts, a welcome into the big leagues.

"This is all the momentum we need going into the playoffs, it gives us that confidence that we can play with anyone in the state," Cruz said.

And for Centennial, it is a chance for self-evaluation; a revelation of weakness and an opportunity to repair.

"At this point we can take a loss and there's a tomorrow. If you lose beyond this point, there is no tomorrow. So we took this as a positive. We saw some holes and now we know where we need to patch things up ... and make sure we go out and end on a win the way we want to," Ahearn said.

E-mail Andrew Conrad at aconrad@patuxent.com.

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