Clear Spring enters playoffs as CMC Small School co-champion following tie with Brunswick

The Clear Spring baseball team will head into the Maryland playoffs feeling good as the two-time defending Class 1A state champion and a Central Maryland Conference Small School co-champion with a 3-0-1 record over its last four games.

"We finished the season on a good note," said Blazers coach Brandon Glazer following Tuesday's 5-5 tie with Brunswick in the CMC Small School title game at McCurdy Field in Frederick. "We had a week where we dropped a couple (games), so it was good to get our feet back under us. Our bats started to get hot again and our arms are looking good on the mound. I feel like we're in a really good spot to make another run in the playoffs with a really good group."

Clear Spring (13-5-1) rallied from a 5-3 deficit with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to earn a share of the CMC Small School title against the Railroaders (17-2-1). Isaac Gaylor's hard-hit RBI single cut the deficit to 5-4, and Logan Mowen's sacrifice fly to center allowed Jay McConnaughey to score the tying run.

"We did a good job battling back. We had quality at-bats," Glazer said. "Guys who we brought in had good at-bats off the bench and we manufactured a couple runs to get back in it. That was nice to see."

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Isaac Lesher pitched a strong first four innings for Clear Spring, allowing one run on five hits and two walks. He got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth with a key pop-up to keep the score tied at 1 to that point.

"Lesher threw the ball really well today," said Glazer. "He had a good start last week and came out and threw the ball well again. … We've had some guys step into our rotation we didn't expect to be there at the beginning of the year and they've done an incredible job.

Clear Spring opened the scoring in the second inning when Camden Hull doubled and came around on a pair of errors. Brunswick tied it in the top of the fourth on a two-out walk and back-to-back singles by Connor Mullaney and Nathan Borawski.

The Blazers took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth on five straight walks, with Jacob Bryan and Hayden Hose getting RBIs with their free passes.

"This team's done a good job not helping pitchers and really staying locked in on their zone and not expanding the zone for the pitcher," Glazer said. "They've always done a really good job with that, and you have to make those guys throw strikes. They had good approaches at the plate and were locked in for seven innings."

Brunswick cut the lead to 3-2 in the fifth on Tyler Lowery's two-out RBI single, then scored three runs for a 5-3 lead in the top of the sixth on a two-run homer by Conner Ohler -- a bomb over the 20-foot fence in left -- and a two-out triple by Koltin Boyer, who scored on a throwing error.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Clear Spring and Brunswick tie, share CMC Small School baseball crown