Heading into its SMAC championship game, Patuxent’s mantra was “One Inning at a Time,” and they followed that to a tee with a 2-1 win over La Plata Tuesday night at Chancellor’s Run Regional Park in Great Mills.
The Panthers (16-2 overall) relied on offense for two runs in the first inning and then defense to shut down a La Plata threat to win the team’s second SMAC title in three years.
“That was amazing,” said Patuxent starting pitcher Ivan Sypa, who retired the first eight batters he faced and allowed two hits and struck out five over 4⅓ innings to improve to 5-0 on the year.
Patuxent has won its last seven games and allowed two runs over its last five.
The Warriors (12-4) have lost two of their last three games following a four-game win streak.
Trailing 2-0, La Plata led off the seventh with a single and Thomas Conrad struck out, but the baserunner thought it was ball four and went to advance to second, only to be thrown out by Patuxent catcher Logan Powell.
“[Logan] saw it and it was just a heads up play,” Powell said. “That was maybe the best throw he’s made in his life.”
“Everybody on the field knows it was a ball, right?” La Plata head coach John Childers said. “The umpire hesitated to call it and the runner thought it was ball four like everyone else, and started walking toward second.”
Adam Bowling later doubled in a run but the Panthers recorded the next two outs.
Patuxent loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the first, but were only able to score two runs on an RBI single by Billy Clay and a bases loaded walk by Sypa.
“We had a chance to really put them down, and if you can’t put a team like LaPlata away, even if we’re up five or six, it’s not over,” Powell said. “They’re too good of a program, too good of a team.”
“I knew when they scored those two runs that we weren’t out of it yet and we would fight back,” Bowling said. “As long as we kept our head up I knew we’d be alright. They had some pretty good pitchers out there, but we were still going up there and swinging the bat pretty good.”
La Plata starting pitcher Cole Barrett and Cameron Gill held the Panthers to three hits over the next five innings.
“We have guys who haven’t thrown a lot of innings and they were under pressure right from the beginning,” Childers said. “We got behind early but they bounced right back, so give our pitchers all the credit in the world. They were great after that tough start.”
Sypa retired the first eight batters he faced to open the game.
“He’s not overpowering,” Patuxent head coach Keith Powell said of the 2023 SMAC Pitcher of the Year, who was on a pitch count, “but he’s got such good stuff that his fastball is a lot faster.”
Relievers Riley Whitney and Billy Clay, who earned the save, combined to strike out four and walk one.
Patuxent improved to 4-1 in one-run games while La Plata dropped to 1-3.
In the 2A South regional playoffs, Patuxent will play the winner of the May 9 Calvert-Huntingtown matchup on May 11, while La Plata will host McDonough, also on Saturday.
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