Montgomery County Little League Wins District 2 Tourney
The District 2 Little League Tournament of Champions final game pitted the Brunswick Reds, from Brunswick Railroaders Little League, against the Red Sox of Montgomery County Little League. Two teams which had very different winning styles coming into the final on Tuesday night at South Germantown Park.
The Red Sox had been playing close games. They in the opening round of the tournament they beat Thurmont Little League Nationals 10-6 on Sunday in Thurmont, Md. In the semifinal game on Monday, the Red Sox edged the Four County Little League Astros 7-6 on a one-out walk-off single by Sean Carrier in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The Brunswick Reds, on the other hand, scored 30 runs and allowed zero in their two games leading up to the final. The team from Brunswick defeated Mountain Valley 15-0 in the game that was shortened to four innings due to the 10-run rule on Sunday in Brunswick. The Brunswick Reds then pounded Frederick National Little League 15-0 in a second straight 15-0 four inning game.
In the final game, the Brunswick Reds faced Montgomery County’s Matthew Keane on the mound, and Keane had no intention of letting the Reds sniff a run. Keane struck out 13 in five and a third innings, only allowing one hit before an upset stomach forced him to leave the mound after getting the first K of the fifth inning.
After a ten pitch, two strikeout, scoreless top of the first inning, the home Red Sox came out swinging and played small-ball to get two runs in the bottom of the first. Chaz Ross hit a single to center. Jack Patterson would hit into a fielder’s choice that ended with the lead runner out at second. Sean Carrier would move Patterson to third on a sacrifice ground ball. Keane would help his cause on the mound by ripping a line drive single which scored Patterson.
The Montgomery County Red Sox would get another run when Alex Pope doubled to center field to score Keane and give the home team a 2-0 lead.
The top of the second inning was very much like the first, two strikeouts and ball in play for an out. Keane struck out the first two batters and caught a come-backer to the pitcher for the third out. The Red Sox would get a base runner in the bottom of the second when Ben Martin singled to center field but were unable to advance him.
Keane would completely shut down Brunswick in the third and fourth innings by striking out five batters and fielding a ground ball down the first-base line to get the sixth. Montgomery County’s padded the two-run lead when Sean Carrier scored from second on Alex Pope’s single to center field with two outs in the third inning.
In the fourth inning, Montgomery County would add another run with two outs as Chaz Ross was able to line a single to left and advance to third on a passed ball, and steal home when another pitch got away from the Brunswick catcher.
Keane and the Montgomery County Red Sox had a 4-0 lead and no-hitter going into the fifth inning. The no-hitter bid would end when Brunswick’s Bryan Schnur knocked a single to center field and advanced to second two batters later as Keane hit a batter. However, Keane would rally to strike out the side and end the threat.
“It was a very close game,” said Todd Patterson, manager of the Montgomery County Red Sox. “I think Brunswick did an excellent job playing defense.”
Keane came out for the top of the sixth inning and struck out the first batter. At this point, Montgomery County manager Todd Patterson called a time-out to talk to his pitcher and as he was talking Keane became ill and had to be pulled from the game.
Sean Carrier took the mound to finish the game with two strikeouts.
Keane left the game after handling 15 of the possible 18 outs in the game -- 13 strikeouts, and two put-outs. He allowed only one hit in the game, gave up no walks, but hit a batter. Offensively, he helped his cause with two hits and one run-batted-in. He also scored once.
“Mathew is a very strong pitcher, and he was having a good day today,” said Patterson. “He was keeping the ball low, and the umpire liked them low and outside. Mathew was able to put the ball where the ump wanted it. He is a very tough pitcher. Thankfully we got some hits to go along with that and scored some runs.”
Captions:
Top: The Montgomery County Red Sox celebrate after the 4-0 victory over the Brunswick Reds Tuesday night at South Germantown Park.
Next: Mathew Keane pitched 5 and third innings giving up just one hit and no walks to earn the victory over a team that had won their last two games by a total score of 30-0.
Next: Sean Carrier came in to pitch to the last two batters of the game. He struck out both.
Next: Issac Shulman at bat during the victory.
Photos by Germantown Pulse.
