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On a beautiful Wednesday night at Harford Community College, the La Plata Warriors earned their spot in Saturday's state championship game with an 11-5 victory over the North East Indians of Cecil County. In the first game of the 2A state semifinals, it was North East who struck first in the opening inning scoring three runs on two hits, two walks, and two La Plata errors.

La Plata would respond in the second inning scoring five runs and never looked back. Austin Brown singled up the middle to begin the inning and moved to third base on an error and sacrifice bunt by Nick Steury. Back to back RBI singles by David Hayes and Jarrod Schmitz tied the game up at three with one out. Joey Binns walked to load the bases and leadoff batter Dean Kirby broke the tie with a two RBI double. Peytyn Gray added an RBI sac fly for the fifth run of the inning.

The Warriors added three runs in the third inning, two in the fourth, and one more in the fifth for good measure. Brown paced the offense with three hits while Steury, Schmitz, and Ryan Calvert each added two. Kirby, Gray, Hayes, and Zach Harris contributed one a piece for a team total of 13 hits on the afternoon. Jarrod Schmitz came in relief for starter Drew Kirby on the mound in the second inning and went five strong for the Warriors striking out five.

North East would rally in the seventh scoring two runs on three walks, an error, and one hit but it was too little too late. Payton Hoskins (UMES), Kyle Miller, and Andy Jones each collected two hits for the Indians.

 

In game two of the MPSSAA 2A state semifinals at Harford Community College were the Hereford Bulls of Baltimore County and the Century Knights of Carroll County. Knights starting pitcher Tyler Roach (Rhode Island) and Jared Lamb combined to throw a three-hitter in the 9-0 win securing Century's first ever trip to the state championship game. Roach struck out six in six innings of work while Lamb came on in the seventh and struck out the side to end the game.

Century opened the scoring in the top of the second when Ethan Kiple (Harford CC) reached second base on a dropped fly ball in left field and three consecutive hits put the Knights up 3-0. Lamb singled to score Kiple, Jeremy Lapp (West Virginia) singled to make it first and second, and Matt Born highlighted the inning with his two-RBI triple to right center field. Kiple drove in Michael Marrale (Old Dominion) on a base hit through the six hole in the third to make it 4-0.

The Knights blew it open in the fifth inning scoring five runs on four hits, two walks, and one error. Lapp, Born, Dylan Breitenbach, and Nathanael Hibbs (Eckerd) each led the offense with two hits. Marrale, Kiple, and Lamb each added one hit.

 

Century and La Plata will square off on Saturday May 26th at 4:00 PM at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, Maryland for the MPSSAA 2A State Championship.