The result was the same, but the scenery was a heck of a lot better May 24. Three days after losing to South Hagerstown in the state semifinals on a cold and rainy night at Arundel High School May 21, Marriotts Ridge again lost, this time, 6-5, to Kent Island, on a beautiful night at Ripken Stadium, in Aberdeen, in the Class 2A state championship game.

The Mustangs got their second chance all because coach Paul Eckert was looking for a little light reading while he dined.

"Thursday night I went home and I was looking for something to read while I was eating a sandwich," he said. "I didn't have anything else so I was reading old articles. I saw where (South Hagerstown pitcher Brandon Knight) picked up a save with an inning and I said, Well, I know he pitched seven against us" and seven in the regional semifinal.

High school baseball pitchers may only pitch 14 innings in a seven-day period. South Hagerstown played three games in that span and Knight pitched in all of the games, tallying 15 innings.

In the regional championship, Calvert had to pull its starting pitcher in the seventh due to the inning limitation and Marriotts Ridge rallied with two runs to win.

Eckert realized that he had to blow the whistle. "My obligation was to those 19 kids on the team," he said.

With the Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association overturning South Hagerstown's victory, the Mustangs went from summer vacation to state championship contenders. For the seniors, it meant their high school careers were not over after all.

At first, some of the players thought it was a practical joke.

"Tim Blair got them all on the (phone) and they all thought Timmy was giving them the business a little," Eckert said. "It's amazing. Within 10 minutes with cell phones and kids, they all knew."

"I really didn't believe it and then I got like five other phone calls," senior Dean Yang said. "We actually turned in our uniforms Wednesday night after we lost."

Given a second chance, Marriotts Ridge came tantilizingly close to winning a state championship. After a two-run single by Dan Myers in the sixth inning, the Mustangs led, 5-4, entering the bottom of the seventh and were only three outs away from victory.

Stephen Blucher had retired the side in order in the sixth, and came back out to close the game against the top of the Buccaneers' lineup.

"We had all the confidence in the world in him," Yang said. "I thought we were going to win until that last play."

Perhaps the high emotions finally caught up to Marriotts Ridge, which had already allowed an unearned run, as Blucher walked leadoff man Devin Gardner to start the inning, then hit the next batter on an 0-2 count.

"Adrenaline got up a little bit," Kent Island coach Rocco Barletta said. "The same thing happens to our guys, the harder you throw the harder it is to throw with control."

A pitch in the dirt advanced the tying run to third, and after a Blucher strikeout, a second pitch in the dirt tied the game and put the winning run on third. Marriotts Ridge intentionally walked the next two batters to set up a force out at any base, but Lingan Sweeney laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt. Joey Kirby was halfway home before the ball hit the bat, and even a perfect play wouldn't have been in time.

The Mustangs, eliminated and then revived, graduated and then back in high school, three outs away from a state championship and then state runners-up instead, walked off the field in a daze.

"By Saturday after the seventh inning they were emotionally drained, from Wednesday, from graduation, from 'Oh my gosh we're back in it', to we're going to win this thing, and then ahh, we didn't...," Eckert said. "We didn't win it, but we got to experience it. We got to go to Ripken Stadium and play there."

Third baseman John Cruz appreciated his chance to end his senior year with one last game. "We had really nothing to lose here. We were technically not even supposed to be here, so it was a gift for us. Win, lose, or draw it was fun."

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

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