Battle at Blandair
July 27. 2024
The Baltimore Chop defeated DigIn Baseball 8-2 in the finals of the 2024 MCBL Post-season Tournament Championship held on Saturday night at Blandair Field in Columbia.
The Baltimore Chop successfully defended last year’s tournament championship. This is only the third time that a team has won back-to-back tournament championships.
They also won their fifth MCBL championship……the most of any franchise in MCBL history.
It was a total team effort from the Chop. During the previous 4 tournament games, the Chop only had 18 hits. They busted out the bats on Friday and had 15 hits….tying for the most they’ve had all season. They were paced at the plate by Cam Jones who went 4 for 4.
The Chop’s pitchers (Shawn Rosemond and Eric Chaney) combined to scatter 5 hits and 3 walks to keep the DigIn batters off the basepaths.
DigIn came to play and didn’t make it easy for the Chop, stopping several Chop rallies to keep the game close. They were aggressive at the plate all evening and never struck out looking. They were also not intimidated by the Chop’s starter Shawn Rosemond who had previously struck out 31 batters over 24 innings. Shawn only registered 3 strikeouts over 7 innings.
A key moment in the game occurred in the bottom of the seventh. Down 3-1, Digin’s Hayden Hair led off with a single. Then Dylan Melton hit a monster shot to right center that seemed destined for extra bases. But the Chop’s right fielder Jaxson Wood raced over, laid out and made a spectacular diving catch. While still on the ground, he flipped the ball to teammate Cam Jones to throw it back to the infield to keep the runner from scoring.
One interesting note: DigIn’s closer Brian McDermott pitched the ninth inning……and just like his prior 7 appearances, he picked off a runner.
Congratulations to DigIn for a great tournament run and congratulations to the Baltimore Chop for winning the tournament championship.
Told ya it would be interesting.
See ya at the ballfield, next year!
