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On a beautiful Friday evening for baseball, the Old Mill Patriots came from behind to defeat Sherwood on a walk-off base hit by Xander Waddell (UMES) in the bottom of the ninth to claim their fourth state title in school history and first since 2003. 

Sherwood jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first as Luke Cheng (Illinois State) and Joey Bowers both walked to start off the game and Ben Vok (Frostburg State) singled to right to load the bases with one out. Third baseman Bradshaw Steeley drove one to deep center for a sac-fly to score Cheng from third and J.P. Yore (Susquehanna) delivered the big blow belting one down the right field line to clear the bases for a two-run triple. 

Old Mill would threaten in the bottom of the first as leadoff hitter Ian Adams (Washington College) doubled to left and advanced to third on a ground ball with one out. Warriors starter Vok would strand Adams at third however, picking up a strikeout and inducing a ground ball to keep Old Mill off the scoreboard. 

Patriots starting pitcher Hunter McKean (CCBC Catonsville) settled in after the first retiring the side in order in the second and dominated Sherwood's lineup through seven scattering just two other hits and one walk while striking out four in the process. 

Old Mill touched Vok for a run in the third when following back-to-back singles by Caleb Bailey and Adams, the Patriots successfully pulled off a first and third double steal to make it 3-1. 

The game would remain 3-1 until the seventh as Vok and McKean carved up opposing hitters through the middle innings.

Down to their final three outs in the seventh, Old Mill found life as Christian Murphy led off the inning with a walk and McKean followed it up with a line drive single to right giving the Patriots runners on the corners with no outs. Third batter of the inning, Shayne Smith then singled to right easily scoring pinch runner Trey  Smith. McKean went first-to-third and also scored on the play to tie the game at three as the relay throw got past the third baseman. When the dust settled, Smith wound up at third as the throw from third sailed past the catcher and Old Mill had the winning run just ninety feet away still with no outs in the inning. 

Sherwood head coach Sean Davis went to the bullpen for reliever Ian Brady who came on and did an incredible job to get out of the inning sending the game to extra innings. Brady got a weak pop out to first base for the first out and induced a ground ball to Cheng at shortstop catching pinch runner Myles Fulton in a rundown for the second out. After walking Adams to set up a force play, Brady got Waddell to ground out to short to end it. 

Old Mill went to their bullpen to begin the eighth as Kevin Curran came on in relief of McKean. Curran retired the first two batters he faced before Yore tripled to deep center giving Sherwood a chance to re-take the lead with two outs. The Warriors rally would fall short however as Curran got Jack Braun to fly out to left field for the final out of the inning.

Old Mill squandered another opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the eighth as they failed to push one across with runners on first and second and one out. Curran was splendid in the top of the ninth retiring the side in order striking out two and keeping the momentum on the home teams side. 

In the bottom of the ninth, Eric Mondragon led off with a single to left and both Bailey and Adams followed suit with singles of their own to load the bases again with no outs. Brady then fell behind 3-0 to Waddell at the plate and what was a great ballgame on both sides seemed to be headed for an anti-climatic finish. To Brady's credit, he battled back with two big strikes before Waddell drove the full count offering down the left field line scoring Mondragon for the game winning run. 

With their second 4-3 walk-off win in as many games, the Old Mill Patriots from Anne Arundel County had done it erasing an early deficit in the bottom of the seventh to come back and defeat Sherwood for the MPSSAA Class 4A State Championship.