Ace pitchers often are handed the ball in the big games, but a pair of No. 3 pitchers were largely responsible for getting their teams -- 2A South Region champion Marriotts Ridge and 3A East champ Centennial -- into the state semifinals.

Marriotts Ridge senior left-hander Stephen Blucher is not your traditional No. 3 pitcher. The Mustangs' staff ace and an all-county second team selection as a junior, Blucher tore his anterior cruciate ligament during basketball season and dug in for a six-month rehabilitation stint that would trash his baseball season. But the rehab went better than planned and May 17, the day after Marriotts Ridge's first senior prom, Blucher took the mound against Calvert as the starting pitcher.

He did not earn the win, but looked sharp, needing slightly more than 80 pitches to make it through five innings of three-hit ball. He did allow two runs, but both were unearned.

Still, after six innings, Marriotts Ridge was down, 2-1, and appeared to be on the verge of summer vacation. Calvert pitcher Brandon Crigger mystified the Mustangs, allowing only three hits and one unearned run in six innings while striking out nine.

"We were right there, we just could never figure out why we couldn't hit him. He was a great pitcher," Marriotts Ridge center fielder Kevin Seker said.

By the sixth inning, Crigger had thrown almost 150 pitches and faced 30 batters (Marriotts Ridge drew seven walks from Crigger, five on full counts) and when he could not answer the bell in the seventh, the Mustangs' batters finally came out of their post-prom haze.

Seker led off against closer Josh Roberson and roped a single into left field. Two innings earlier he had doubled to left after two straight Crigger strikeouts.

"We were feeling down (going into the seventh). I came up with a hit and we all just got uplifted," Seker said. After a strikeout, Marriotts Ridge was down to its last two outs, but Seker was in scoring position after stealing second. Stephen Kahl had two strikes against him when he dribbled a grounder up the first baseline. The pitcher, second baseman, and first baseman all gave chase and Seker kept running when he reached third. By the time he slid into home, scoring the tying run, Kahl had barely beaten the throw to first with a headfirst slide, and the winning run was on base with only one out.

"Steve did a great job of putting the ball in play ... no one was looking at me so I just took my opportunity," Seker said.

Kahl stole second, then reached third on a Tim Blair single up the first base line. As Kahl took off for home on a suicide squeeze play, batter Nick Marinelli hit a liner up the middle that glanced off the pitchers glove, ending the game.

"There's not a greater feeling in the world right now," said Seker, who credited pitchers Blucher and Blair (two scoreless innings for the win in relief) for the win.

The Mustangs, trying to advance to their first state championship game, faced the 2A West's top seed South Hagerstown (17-3) in the state semifinals. That game, rescheduled for May 21 because of rain, was played too late for this edition.

In the 3A East championship, Centennial's Joe Couch was the No. 3 pitcher who got the job done, pitching a complete-game shutout in a 2-0 victory over visiting Fallston May 19.

Couch pitched his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the third.

"I was focused on where I needed to pitch, just me and the batter. Trying to get him out and help my team," said Couch, who retired the last seven batters of the game in order.

In the first inning, Ben Winter doubled and then Couch doubled him home with a bloop to right field. That was the only run he would need to work with, even though his courtesy runner, Brad Ortman, scored an insurance run in the sixth on a stolen base, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly.

The Eagles, 2007 state finalists, played Patapsco (18-2) in the state semifinal game, also too late for this edition. The winner advanced to the championship game against either Seneca Valley or LaPlata.

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

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