'Thank God it's over': Knights finally put end to tense, unforgettable state semifinal by prevailing in 13th inning

It seemed as if most people packed into McCurdy Field knew what was coming – except, briefly, for Middletown’s Easton Metral.

In the top of the 13th inning of a pitchers’ duel, Patuxent brought on right-hander Riley Whitney to face Metral in a bases-loaded, one-out situation. Metral, who was 0-for-5 to that point, walked over to conference with coach Andy Baker while Whitney was warming up.

Baker told Metral the Knights were putting on the suicide squeeze on the first pitch.

“I was slightly confused,” Metral said. “I missed a couple bunts this game.”

But he didn’t miss the most important one.

Metral perfectly placed the squeeze down the third-base line, bringing home a hard-charging Hunter Barnes and finally giving Middletown a chance to relax after hours of one of the tightest high school baseball games most will ever play.

And minutes later, the Knights closed out Tuesday night’s marathon 2-1, 13-inning win over the Panthers in a Class 2A semifinal that lifted them to their fifth state title game and first in five years. Middletown will face Glenelg at Waldorf’s Regency Furniture Stadium on Saturday for the championship.

“I told the guys, ‘This is a day you will never forget for the rest of your lives,’” Baker said. “Everybody here will never forget this game.”

Few baseball games at any level ever go that long or are that clean. The only one that comes close in Baker’s mind was the 2017 Class 2A West regional final, a 12-inning slugfest with Marriotts Ridge that ended up a 7-5 Knights win en route to Middletown’s first state title.

But “this probably eclipses that,” Baker said.

For one, the stakes were even higher. Yet, it’s also how the Knights continued to survive and push the game as long as it went.

Middletown (18-5) failed to bring home the go-ahead run from third base in four consecutive innings, meaning Patuxent (20-3) kept getting chances to walk it off. The Panthers came close on two occasions, including a bases-loaded jam in the 12th inning that was neutralized by a fielder’s choice.

Each time, Knights right-hander Keller Routzahn beared down, and he delivered six shutout innings of relief in the longest appearance of his high school career to earn the win.

“I definitely won’t forget a single pitch of those last innings where there were runners on third,” Routzahn said. “Just trust myself, trust my defense, know they’re gonna get an out behind me if they put it in play.”

It capped a lengthy day for Routzahn and Middletown’s nine other seniors, who graduated earlier in the afternoon. Most had been out of the house for more than 12 hours, shuttling back and forth from the graduation venue at Mount St. Mary’s to McCurdy Field.

First pitch for this game was even delayed by more than an hour due to a lengthy seventh inning in the Brunswick-Colonel Richardson contest, meaning the Knights were antsy to take the field.

“Sitting at graduation, and then sitting here before the game, I’m like, just get this going,” Routzahn said. “We all just wanted to play.”

And they played for 3 hours, 41 minutes, not stopping until 11:44 p.m. when Barnes fielded a ground ball and completed the throw for the final out.

It’s just as remarkable that Middletown never dragged even when it had every opportunity to do so.

“Stay [energized]. We never drop,” Barnes said. “If it drops, we have a teammate or somebody to call us up and we’ll get right back on it.”

That energy only increased throughout the contest, with each pitch sending the tension to new highs.

But it’s games like this which make a high school baseball career worthwhile, and Metral made the most consequential moment count. Even if he wasn’t initially expecting to be asked to bunt, he was more than ready.

His teammates, and the fans who bore witness to an instant classic, could not have been more grateful.

“Thank God it’s over, but we get to go on to the next round,” Barnes said. “That’s all I wanted to do.”

NOTES: Patuxent scored its lone run in the first inning on Will Hagan’s RBI groundout. Left-hander Ivan Sypa tossed six innings, allowing an unearned run while fanning eight. Clay threw 6 1-3 innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts. Middletown evened the contest in the third inning, as Dylan Leadbetter scored on a throwing error on a failed rundown. Barnes completed seven innings, allowing one run and striking out 10.