It Takes Two, Baby: Vikings Baseball Downs Calvert, Joins Softball in State Finals

They’re going to the ship! Lansdowne High School completed its run to the state championship game on Tuesday afternoon with a 5-3 victory over Calvert High School at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.

After defeating top-seeded Digital Harbor and now seventh seeded Calvert, the Vikings move on to face North Caroline (16-6) on Saturday at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen for the Maryland 2A State Championship. The North Regional Champions have outscored opponents by 14 runs (33-19) during the tournament and are now one win away from a state title.

 “We’ve had our ups and downs,” Coach Matthew Kohel said. “Our boys our clicking at the right time and it certainly boosts our momentum.”

After being down 2-0 going into the bottom of the third inning, the Vikings offense got itself going with a single by senior Shane Montgomery. After stealing second, Montgomery scored on a homerun by senior Mike Morris. It was Morris’ second homerun of the year, after the first came in the regional championship on back-to-back-to-back homeruns with senior Alex Kurth and sophomore Sam Warfield.

 Lansdowne was then able to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI groundout by senior Melvin Shook. Sophomore Brad Childress led off the inning with a single and after a Josh Shook double; Childress came around to score on the Shook groundout to the pitcher.

After Calvert came back to tie the game in the top of the fifth, Lansdowne was able to pull away for good in the bottom half of the inning when Kurth led off the inning with the team’s fourteenth homerun of the year. (The Vikings hit five in the game to win the regional championship). Senior Brian Kummerlowe came around to score in the seventh inning for an insurance run, to extend Lansdowne’s advantage to 5-3.

 Montgomery went 3-4 in the game including two doubles and a run scored while Kurth went 2-4 including the homerun. The last four hitters in the Vikings orders went 4-12 (.333) in the game including a run scored.

Warfield pitched the whole game for the Vikings, earning his ninth win of the year, giving up seven hits while striking out two and walking four. He will go again on Saturday for the state title.

 “Sam’s not one to walk people,” Kohel said. “He had that one rough inning but you can’t really mess with the kid, he’s unflappable. You can never really tell what he’s thinking,”

Up next is the trip to Ripken Stadium for a 4 p.m. matchup on Saturday with North Caroline High School for the state championship. North Caroline beat Middletown, 8-5, to get to the dance.