WALDORF — During a spring in which any Anne Arundel County baseball team could dominate one day and fall flat the next, Chesapeake baseball just followed the pattern. Unfortunately for the Cougars’ Class 3A state title aspirations, they happened to land in the latter category Saturday night. Though Chesapeake proved itself more than capable of overcoming deficits all season, scarce hitting and some untimely outs on the basepaths cost the Cougars a chance just to counter Magruder’s 4-0 triumph — its first title in program history — at Regency Furniture Stadium.
Only two of the Colonels’ four runs were scored by hits; the other two crossed home via wild pitch. But in return, even some of the Cougars’ sharpest sluggers could not outfox Colonels starting pitcher Xavier Headen, who limited Chesapeake to five hits and three walks while recording eight strikeouts over six innings. “You’re going to run into an arm that’s on — and he was on,” Chesapeake coach Jeff Young said.
“Kind of thought we had a good practice hitting the ball yesterday, and it just really didn’t fall for us today.” Chesapeake (16-8) stumbled over rocky losses to Arundel, Broadneck, Crofton and Annapolis, among others, in early spring, seemingly settling for a mid-tier finish among the county, if not lower. No one thought that after the Cougars dealt a crushing 10-4 blow to Severna Park on April 11.
And while Chesapeake couldn’t escape the regular season without a handful of disapp.
