Patterson Mill baseball routs CMIT-North, 15-0, for a spot in Class 1A state final
COLESVILLE — Patterson Mill got its work done early.
It started with Michael Hemelt barreling an RBI double to the left field corner in the second inning. Then in the third, with some assistance from No. 4 seed CMIT North’s dismal defense, the Huskies blew the game wide-open.
A single, a walk and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases. Then, over the next four batters, the Huskies were hit twice, drew a walk and got another double by Hemelt courtesy of a dropped ball in left field. Suddenly it was 7-0, the beginning to a rout that would end in a five-inning, 15-0 Huskies win in a Class 1A state semifinal.
Patterson Mill will face No. 3 Brunswick at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Huskies have been to the final twice (2011 and 2016) but are chasing their first championship.
Tuesday night’s dominance was a collective offensive output in which coach Matt Roseland dug deep into his bench to get reps for as many players as he could. Defensively, it was pitcher Noah Thomas who put on a show, pushing his postseason total to 13 scoreless innings. He went three innings with six strikeouts and a walk in the win.
“Noah is our playoff MVP,” Roseland deadpanned. “Flat out. He has put us on his back.”
Take, for example, Patterson Mill’s 1-0 win over Havre de Grace in the regional final. Thomas had runners on second and third with no outs in the sixth inning. He struck out the next three batters and sealed the win. “He’s arrived at the right point,” Roseland said. “He has gotten it done and we’re set to ride him again and see where it lands.”
Thomas has only surrendered 16 walks on the year and, according to Roseland, makes every opposing batter earn it. The senior has a three-pitch arsenal and he can throw all of them for strikes. Roseland said his command on all three is the mark of a strong high school pitcher.
His dominance Tuesday night might require the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association to edit the record books.
In the bottom of the third inning, Thomas threw 12 consecutive strikes — an immaculate inning over four batters, one of whom reached base on a whiff and a dropped ball. There is no official marking in the state record book for the unique sequence, but MPSSAA officials say it’s something they’ll investigate and potentially add as a new reference point.
“That would be pretty cool,” Roseland said.
The win was hardly a barometer for the thickets Patterson Mill had to climb through to get to this point: a below .500 record turning into a shot at the program’s first state championship.
Patterson Mill’s definitive wins have come over the past two weeks.
The Huskies bested Perryville, 4-0, in the regional quarterfinal round. They needed 11 innings to escape Bohemia Manor in the semis, 7-5. Then came the narrow Havre de Grace win behind Thomas’ excellence. And their magnum opus was last week in the state quarterfinal with a 3-1 win over Allegany, which hadn’t lost since March.
“I fully believe the 7-11 regular season [record] in our conference,” Roseland said, “was the difference against [Allegany]. The adversity we had faced — we had lost six games by less than nine runs, but we were always in every single game — we were always comfortable in a one-run, two-run game.
“Adversity usually divides teams. It has brought us stronger and closer together.”
Now, Patterson Mill has a chance to do something no team that came before it has ever done. This isn’t the most talented Huskies group Roseland has ever coached. They aren’t littered with Division I talent. But he said it’s certainly one of the best-jelled groups.
Only seven more innings to go.