Game MPSSAA Class 3A Baseball State of round Round 3

On the afternoon of May 23, the one-seeded Sherwood Warriors matched up against the three-seed, the Chopticon Braves, in the MPSSAA 3A Baseball State Championship. In the semi-finals, Sherwood shut out the five-seed Chesapeake Cougars 4-0, while Chopticon took down the seven-seeded Oakdale Bears 4-1. Neither team had much action in the first inning, but the Braves opened the scoring in this match-up in the top of the second. Following a leadoff single by Ryan Welch, catcher Trace Haggard smacked a fly ball into left field to drive in the first run. In the bottom half, Sherwood answered Calum Jagannathan singled to lead off the inning, and pinch runner Carter Sweeney-Strawberry tied the game, scoring on a passed ball. In the bottom of the third, Sherwood picked up the lead. Jacob Bagania fought for a leadoff walk after a six-pitch at bat. After stealing second and third, and after a Ty Hames walk and stolen base, Jaiden Sarita picked up his first hit and first two RBI of the day on a line drive single into center field, giving Sherwood a 3-1 lead. To start off the offense in the next inning, Cam Calandro singled on a ground ball into center field, stole second base, and scored on a single by Jacob Bagania in the next at bat. Ryan Rey continued the offense for the Warriors in the inning, driving in Bagania on a single after he stole a base. After advancing to third on a single by Ty Hames, Rey scored Sherwood’s sixth run on a sacrifice fly out to left field by Jaiden Sarita. In the top of the fifth, Maverick Trueman and Kody Adkins singled and Noah Pessagno walked to load the bases with no outs. Logan Carver was walked, and Chopticon scored their second run. During the following at bat, Ryan Welch reached on an error by Sherwood’s third baseman Jacob Bender, and the Braves scored again with no outs. However, that would be the end of the scoring that inning, as three runners were stranded on base to end the inning. During the bottom half, Connor Flickinger doubled on a fly ball to deep left field with two outs, and pinch hitter Michael Cheng drove him in on a hard ground ball single into left field. Down by four runs, Chopticon had runners on the corners with two outs. Logan Carver stepped up to the plate, and destroyed a ball over 300 feet down the right field line, but the ball curved within feet of the foul pole, and proved to be just a long strike down the line, and the Braves were unable to score in the inning. Sherwood was able to tack one more on the board in the bottom half, as Ty Hames led off the inning with a double on a fly ball off the right field wall. Jaiden Sarita followed that up with his second hit of the day, a single on a line drive into center field, driving in his fourth RBI of the day. That would be the end of the scoring in this match up, and the Sherwood Warriors won the 3A baseball state championship 8-3. Jason Selis earned the win for the Warriors, going 4.0 innings on 70 pitches. The starter gave up three earned runs on six hits while picking up five strikeouts. For the Braves, Logan Carver was tagged with the loss. The Penn State York commit went 3.1 innings, allowing five earned runs on five hits and four walks while picking up five strikeouts in the outing. Congratulations to both teams for reaching this momentous game.

Jaiden Sarita’s 2-hit, 4-RBI performance power Sherwood to the 3A state baseball championship — the program’s fourth title in five years and sixth overall. ⚾️🔥