Caster's Dominant Performance Propels No. 19 South River Into the Sectional Finals

No. 18 Leonardtown hosted No. 19 South River in one of the marquee matchups of the MPSSAA 4A tournament on Saturday. The 4A East region is stacked and in what could easily have been a very exciting 4A East Region Championship game, this one was drawn as an opening game for both teams in the Sectional Semifinal round.

 With both aces on the bump, South River senior Kavi Caster (Salisbury) and Leonardtown’s Ethan Ledig went head-to-head, both retiring the side in order in the first.  The second was a different story however, as the Seahawks tagged Ledig with four runs to jump out to the early lead. With one out in the second, Cael Huyer started the rally off with a single to left field. Kevin Sieber then walked, and Leonardtown was unable to record an out on Derrick Neff’s ground ball to third base thus loading the bases. Ledig picked up a strikeout for the second out but then struggled to find the final one as Chris Sheridan walked to plate Huyer, Chris Nalley singled to drive in Sieber and Neff, and Cam Rees drove in Sheridan with a single of his own.

Caster was dominant early allowing just one base runner the first time through the lineup. In the fourth, Leonardtown mounted a two-out rally to cut the lead to just one as Jalen Camp jump-started the offense with a single and Cole Tarleton made it first and second after being hit by a pitch.  Matt Robinson then hit a long fly ball that was seemingly well tracked but ended up dropping for an error that allowed Camp and Tarleton to both score. Owen Ziemba then singled to make it 4-3.

That would be it though offensively for the Raiders for the remainder of the game as Caster regained his composure striking out the side in the fifth, two in the sixth, and finishing the complete game effort without allowing a runner over the course of the final three frames.

South River added three insurance runs in the fifth as Caster helped his own cause by blasting a two-run homerun to center and Neff popped out to right field to score Keaton Goetzger (Radford) on the sac-fly.

Sieber’s solo home run in the top of the seventh to make it 8-3 was the icing on the cake for the Seahawks who will now travel to Broadneck on Tuesday for the 4A East Section II Semifinal at 5:00 pm - weather permitting. The Bruins are a familiar opponent and will be looking for revenge as the Seahawks have won all three meetings this season - most recently the Anne Arundel County Championship at Bachman Sports Complex early last week.

Caster finished with thirteen strikeouts on the day while allowing just two hits. Nalley (2-for-5, 2 RBI’s), Rees (2-for-4, RBI, R), Caster (1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI’s, BB, R), and Sieber (2-for-3, HR, RBI, BB, 2 R’s) paced the way offensively for South River.