After rallying from the loser’s bracket to emerge as Frank Riley American Legion District V Tournament champions, the St. Mary’s Post 255 (Bean) found itself in a similar situation at the outset of the Department of Maryland American Legion Baseball Senior Tournament it hosted at Joe Cannon Stadium in Anne Arundel County.
Last Friday evening in the opening round of the state tournament, St. Mary’s spotted the Naptown Tides an early 5-0 lead, trimmed the gap to 5-3 on a two-run homer by Troy Smith that followed on the heels of a triple by Owen Zartman, yielded the next two runs then clawed back to 7-6 before leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh with the chance to complete the rally.
“Even in the second inning when they scored their first five runs, we should have gotten out of that inning only down 2-0,” St. Mary’s Post 255 coach Jason Bean said. “Then when Troy hit that home run that would have put us ahead 3-2. We left the bases loaded twice. We should have come up with a run in the seventh. Bases loaded and one out, we need to get one there.”
Post 255 starter Eli Bean eventually took the loss, allowing five runs, three earned, in 1 2/3 innings of work. Relievers Mike Bittle and Nick Hevner kept the St. Mary’s squad close.
Naptown starter Bradley Taylor collected the win, allowing three unearned runs in four complete innings then closer Bradley Herczak earned the save by fanning one Post 255 hitter then retired Cam Riley on a fielder’s choice grounder to third to end it.
Then on Saturday afternoon in the second of two loser’s bracket contests, St. Mary’s kept its state title hopes alive by edging Cecil 3-2 in an elimination game. Post 255 scored once in the third and twice in the fifth, but had other chances to break the game open before settling for a one-run tally that briefly kept their state title hopes alive.
“I was glad that we won, but I really wasn’t satisfied with the way we played that game,” Bean said. “I mean, we had several chances to break the game open. We could never come up with a key hit with runners in scoring position. That was basically the theme for the entire tournament. We let too many opportunities get away.”
On Sunday morning, however, St. Mary’s bid for a state title came to an end fairly early as Post 255 was upended by Cumberland Post 273 7-4.
This time, however, Post 255 owned a tepid 3-2 lead heading through five innings, then endured a disastrous sixth inning which officially ended the team’s tournament title bid. St. Mary’s committed five errors in Cumberland’s four-run sixth and never recovered.
“Up until the sixth, that was probably the best game that we played,” Bean said. “We were up 3-2 with six outs to get. Then we had five errors which led to four unearned runs in the sixth. They only had one hit that inning. But it doesn’t matter when you give a team eight outs in one inning, you’re probably going to give up a lot of runs.”
Bean and several St. Mary’s coaches and players remained for the final two days of the tournament, however, as the tournament’s official hosts.
After watching La Plata Post 82 get eliminated on Monday afternoon, Bean hesitated to commit to another season as the Post 255 coach. He noted his decision would hinge on whether five returning players would commit for another summer.