Bowie Goes the Distance as Thomas Johnson Claims the 3A West Section II Title

Tuesday afternoon's 3A West Section II Final featured the defending 4A State Champion Thomas Johnson Patriots and Frederick County foe, Linganore Lancers. Due to the amount of rain that fell over the weekend and on Monday, the game was moved to Walkersville High School with the winner punching their ticket to the Regional Championship on Friday. Thomas Johnson was also looking for a little revenge as the Lancers won both regular season meetings between the two this year.  

Freshman left-handed pitcher Ben Moore got the start for Linganore while Thomas Johnson countered with Junior righty Shane Bowie. Both pitchers had been held back during the regular season from facing one another for a situation like this where they would meet in the playoffs with the stakes as high as they were. Moore and Bowie were fantastic all afternoon and the game flew by with each pitcher allowing just one run through seven innings of work. Those seven innings took all of roughly an hour-and-twenty minutes so that should tell you how efficient and dominant they both were. 

Thomas Johnson struck first in the top of the third when Justin Bolden doubled to left field plating Jacob Orr who had led off the inning with a single. The Lancers would respond and tie it with a run of their own in the fourth as Ryan Barthlow crossed the plate on a ground out by Garrett Schwartzbeck. 

Due to pitch count limits, Moore's day came to an end after the seventh finishing with six strikeouts while allowing just the one run on four hits and two walks. Sophomore Cam Rokisky threw the ball well for the Lancers in relief but was placed in a really tough spot with the top of the lineup coming up for the Patriots to lead off the extra frame. Orr singled and Bolden dropped down a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt down the first base line making for a bang-bang play at first. Rokisky did everything he could to field the ball and toss it to first all in one motion but with Bolden barreling down the line the underhand feed sailed just over Ryan Sachar's head at first. 

Orr, seeing that the ball got past Sachar at first took off for third which lead to two more throwing errors on the play. Orr scored as the throw from Sachar got past Barthlow at third and Bolden advanced all the way to third when Barthlow's throw got past Jacob Ferrence at home plate. Three-hole hitter Trevor Yusko then followed with a double to left field a few pitches later to score Bolden.

Rokisky battled hard and eventually worked out of the jam as we headed to the bottom of the eight with the Patriots leading 3-1. Bowie returned to the mound determined to make the lead stand this time but it didn't come easy as Cole Lee and Jake Santis gave the Lancers life with two singles. Bowie with his calm demeanor and bulldog mentality was amazingly unfazed the entire afternoon with the magnitude of the game and situations that arose. He handled the adversity in the eight just as well as any other he had encountered in the first seven innings getting a pop-out and ground-out to end the game. Over his eight innings of work, Bowie struck out five, allowing just the one run on three hits and walked two. It was an outstanding performance considering the depth of the Lancers lineup. 

Thomas Johnson will now host Westminster on Friday for the 3A West Region Championship with a berth in the State Semifinals on the line.