Eastern Tech was two outs away from their third Baseball State Title in the last five years.

Jerry Cooper is safe at home

The only problem was the Mavericks were playing against their nemesis River Hill out of Howard County. River Hill had already crushed Eastern Tech’s dreams of winning  football and girl’s soccer titles over the past two years.
It was supposed to be different in baseball since Tech had won two previous championships and Maverick ace pitcher Don Guido was on the mound for the Tech in the bottom of the seventh with a 2-0 lead. Guido had only allowed one run and had four strikeouts in the first six innings.
Then it fell apart for Tech in the bottom of that last inning. Guido got the first batter out, but walked the next batter. Then after a hit, a double and another hit, River Hill found themselves celebrating at home plate in a 3-2 win over Eastern Tech.
The Mavericks scored their first run in the third when Jerry Cooper got an infield hit. He stole second and later went to third on Chris Gordon’s bunt. Copper scored after Jake Mardaga grounded out to third.
The next inning Joey Jones led with a hit, stole second and later scored on a Nick McElfish hit to take a 2-0 lead. It appeared the Mavericks were going to bust the game open because McElfish was on second with only one out, but the next two batters struck out.
Eastern Tech wouldn’t get a base runner until the top of the seventh when Zach Decker reached base on an error.
Eastern Tech finishes with an 18-6 record.  As a school, the loss drops Eastern Tech to 0-5 in title games with River Hill over the past two years. The good news is River Hill moves to 3A classification next year, so Eastern Tech won’t meet them for a championship over the next two years in any sport.