Clear Spring blasts Colonel Richardson for Class 1A state baseball title

WALDORF, Md. — The objective was simple.

“It was state title or bust,” said Clear Spring baseball coach Mark Shives.

That’s the goal for just about every team in high school baseball. But the Blazers set themselves apart from the rest.

They followed through.

Mission accomplished.

Clear Spring scored all of its runs in the first three innings — highlighted by two very different three-run homers by Hutson Trobaugh and Logan Helser — to finish its mission with an 11-3 victory over Colonel Richardson in the Class 1A final Saturday at Regency Furniture Stadium.

State tennis: Boonsboro's Liao, Clear Spring's Shives and Keller are champions

Softball playoffs: Undefeated Patterson Mill ends Boonsboro's run in state semis

It gave Clear Spring (18-6) its second state baseball title, and first since 1980.

But even with an 11-run lead, it was more difficult than imagined. The Blazers struggled to get the final out in the fifth inning — failing to win by the 10-run rule — and then again in the bottom of the seventh.

In essence, though, it was a normal part of the Blazers’ journey after starting the season with a sub-.500 record.

“They stayed the course and showed the resiliency that make it capable to come through,” Shives said.

Before struggling to land the knockout blow, Clear Spring flashed signs of a resurgent offense that was dormant for large parts of the season. And like they had in a number of their playoff games, the Blazers played as the visitors and got on the scoreboard early.

Clear Spring jumped on the Colonels from the start with four runs in the first inning and four more in the third, sandwiching a three-run second.

It was more than enough to withstand Colonel Richardson’s comeback tries, leading to a large celebratory dog pile to the first-base side of the mound when the game finally ended.

“It’s great … amazing,” said Helser, who produced all three runs in the third on a drive over the fence in left center. “After losing early, we reloaded, turned it around and got serious to get going. Once we got to the playoffs, we played most of our games away from home. We became road warriors."

Clear Spring put its trust into senior left-hander Clayton Boyer, who entered the game riding a 28 2/3-innings scoreless streak. With an early lead in his back pocket, Boyer smothered the Colonels’ bats with seven straight strikeouts from the first through third innings.

The next thing Colonel Richardson knew, it was down 11-0 before showing any kind of offense.

Boyer hung on but began to show fatigue on a warm day when he was lifted with two outs in the fifth after allowing the first of two runs he was charged with — ending that scoreless streak at 33 1/3 innings.

“I got it again,” said Boyer after consecutive starts in humid conditions. “I just tried to push through it. (Losing the streak bothered me) a little. But this was my last high school game and a win is a win no matter how ugly it is.”

Like in Boyer’s last start in the state quarterfinals at South Carroll, the Blazers came out with a purpose. They sent eight batters to the plate in the first inning to build a 4-0 against Colonel Richardson starter Zack Robbins.

Damien Pittsnogle started the onslaught with a bases-loaded RBI single, before Trobaugh — who earlier singled — scored on a passed ball.

Kannon Shives added maybe the most important at-bat in the game as he brought in two runs without the benefit of a hit. First he pulled back a sacrifice bunt attempt on a pitch that wildly went to the backstop to score Helser. Then he struck a sacrifice fly to short right field to score courtesy runner Lane Poffenberger.

“I think that gave us a lot of momentum,” said Shives, a freshman. “We came off the bus with a lot of energy and knew what we had to do.”

Trobaugh gave Clear Spring a 7-0 lead against Colonel Richardson reliever Owen Nogel with a drive to the right-field fence, well over the Colonels’ drawn-in outfield. With Chris Hose and Jakob Hull running ahead of him, Trobaugh was around second by the time the Colonels picked up the ball. He hit third and kept running, finishing with a diving slide at the plate.

“I had no clue,” Trobaugh said about the length of the hit. “I was really tired by the time I got to third base.”

The third-inning rally started with Malakai Cunningham’s sacrifice fly to score Braeden Wade after Wade's leadoff single. With two outs, Hull was hit by a pitch and Trobaugh was intentionally walked.

Helser took advantage of his opportunity with his big drive to left center that cleared the lower cutout of the outfield wall.

“That was big,” the junior first baseman said. “It put us up big and put us in the position to win. ... I was really surprised with it. Normally I have been hitting balls that haven’t been carrying well. I put a little extra strength in the swing. I was hitting with a 3-2 count and got the pitch I needed.”

The Colonels put up two runs in the fifth on RBIs by Camron Gondeck and Jordan Rowan to avoid the 10-run rule. They added another run with two outs in the seventh off reliever Dawson Kehr, when Jacob Cohee was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Kannon Shives came in to record the final out and start the celebration.

Boyer got the win, moving to 7-2, with 4 2/3 innings of work, allowing two runs on three hits with four walks, two hit batters and 10 strikeouts.

Clear Spring collected eight hits, led by Wade with three. Trobaugh added two hits and three RBIs.

After the Blazers defeated Catoctin for the 1A West Region II title, the team celebrated wildly while Mark Shives watched.

“I’ve won region titles before,” he said. “I told them I was playing for a state title.”

The Blazers successfully completed Shives’ master plan, with some historic context.

“I was at graduation the other day and noticed that the school has been around for 106 years,” he said. “We’ve only won this twice. That’s not great, but we are getting better at it.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Clear Spring wins Maryland Class 1A state baseball championship