Bruins Baseball Wins Third-Ever Region Title

In the bottom of the eighth inning of the 4A East II baseball region title game May 15, members of Broadneck’s boys lacrosse team shouted from the bleachers at junior left fielder Aiden Casey, encouraging him to “bring him home” and end the game.

Never mind the fact that Casey was on deck, and there was nobody on base.

They were prophetic.

After a one-out single, Casey smashed a hanging slider down the left-field line. The ball landed just fair and went all the way to the fence, pinch runner Cooper Mengel scored with ease, and Broadneck started to party like it was 1995.

Casey’s second hit of the day gave the Bruins a 2-1 walk-off win over defending 4A champion Leonardtown and put Broadneck in the state tournament for the first time in 30 years, adding to the county championship won the week before over Northeast.

“I knew the pitcher kept wanting to throw that slider on the inside corner, and he left one middle-in and I knew that was the one,” said Casey, who was mobbed between second and third base by a black-with-maroon-trim wall of elated teammates after Mengel scored. “I thought it was going to go foul, then I thought the left fielder was going to cut it off; as soon as it got past him and went to the wall, I knew Cooper was going to score. That moment felt so good.”

To get Casey to his moment took an effort from every player in the order, plus the pitching crew. Leadoff hitter Mike Swick didn’t record a hit, but he walked twice and ran down a deep fly ball in the left-center field gap for a long out. Shortstop Avik Cherry twice flashed the leather to rob Leonardtown of sure hits.

Later, catcher Nick Cicale scrambled to chase down a dropped third strike and made an off-balance throw that still had pinpoint accuracy. First baseman Noah Forman saved four outs in the field, stretching and leaping to corral throws that were slightly off target. Freshman third baseman Max White made a hard play look routine to end an inning, then led off the home half with a single that turned into Broadneck’s first run. Grant Morsberger singled to lead off the eighth, which proved to be the game-winning run. Luke Smith and Kobe Owen worked counts and tried to drive up the pitch count, and Owen picked up the win with two innings of relief pitching.

“We all just want to give the next guy a chance. The theme for us is to pass the torch,” Casey said. “Every one of us just wants to go 1-0 in our at-bat, every pitch, every game, so the next guy gets a chance to do something.”

The resilience and grit helped Broadneck avoid the bugaboo of years past: one bad inning that derailed everything they had worked so hard to earn.

That inning could have come in the sixth on that Thursday, when Leonardtown finally got to starter Chase Hannon and knocked him around a little, scoring their only run of the game. But Hannon dug deep, the defense rallied around him, and they got out of the inning with the game still tied.

Hannon pitched six complete innings, allowing three hits and striking out eight.

“None of this is easy at this stage of the season,” said Broadneck coach Matt Skrenchuk. “We believe in our guys, they believe in themselves, and they have a lot of experience in situations like this.”

The Bruins’ run ended in controversial circumstances in the state semifinals against Urbana. Having overcome a catastrophic first two innings in which they committed six errors and allowed as many unearned runs, Broadneck rallied to tie the game and force extra innings — six of them, to be precise.

In the bottom of the 13th, with two on and two out and the Bruins down 9-7 and down to their final strike, Smith flared a fly ball down the right-field line. Urbana’s right fielder dove for it and missed, and the ball squirted into foul territory as the Bruins circled the bases to tie the game once again.

Or so they thought.

Urbana’s protests of a successful catch forced a conference of umpires, who ruled the ball was not caught. Continued protests resulted in a second conference, after which the play was ruled a foul ball. Video footage of the play in question showed the ball landing in fair territory.

Smith grounded out on the next pitch, and Urbana was off to the final with Broadneck’s season suddenly, achingly, over just like that.

It was a strange ending to a truly strange game: the teams combined for nine errors, seven double plays, and five baserunning outs. There was also an incident in which Casey’s metal bat snapped just like a wood one would have, leaving only the handle left in his hands as he stood bewildered after reaching first base.

With the loss, the season ended, as did the decorated careers of eight seniors: Forman, Hannon, Swick, Cicale, Owen, Morsberger, Garrett Drish and Cade Schuetter. They leave the Broadneck program with two county championships in three years and the program’s third ever region championship.