Gilman AD pays tribute to late father
Senior All-Star Game chance to continue family tradition
If his dad would be anywhere, it would be a baseball diamond quite like the one Russell Wrenn coached from Sunday night. Maybe exactly like that one, in fact, that Wrenn stood steps away from in the Camden Yards dugout.
Russell Wrenn used to help his dad as a bat boy for high school all-star games at Memorial Stadium. His dad, Roger Wrenn, coached football and basketball for decades at Patterson and Poly high schools in Baltimore. High school baseball was one of their earliest bonds.
And it was the bond Russell Wrenn, now the athletic director at Gilman, used to pay tribute to his father less than a week after he died at age 75.
Coaching the North team at the 40th annual Brooks Robinson Senior All-Star
Game — a new iteration of the one where he’d spent so many years with his father — Russell Wrenn thought back to those days as a bat boy with his dad as his team beat the South team, 3-1, Sunday night.
For on this night generations relayed a family tradition. Russell Wrenn watched his own sons gleefully do the job he used to take such pride in.
“Just incredibly thankful for these guys to be willing to have me stand in his place and to honor dad, and it was neat to be out here and talk to a lot of the coaches he’s known for forever and the umpires,” Russell Wrenn said. “It was really a nice tribute to my father.”
Roger Wrenn was diagnosed with multiple
myeloma around the beginning of the pandemic. He was able to see his grandkids play various games in the few years before he passed away.
The late Wrenn was supposed to coach this game — the Maryland State Association of Baseball Coaches wanted to honor him. But Roger Wrenn finished his last treatment about two weeks before the game and it was clear he wouldn’t be able to. So they asked his son. His father’s name would still be listed on the roster, and he would coach in his honor.
On May 30, about a week after his final treatment, Roger Wrenn died.
“The end came quickly, and selfishly you
Padilla hit an RBI double for an eight-run advantage.
However, Maryland proved it still had some fight left. After going scoreless for three straight innings, following Shliger’s first-inning homer, the bats showed some life in the fifth. Maryland scored four runs on four hits. When Terps junior right fielder Troy Schreffler Jr. drove home Lorusso with an RBI single, cutting the deficit to 9-5, the stadium was electric as a glimmer of hope was restored.
Even when the Huskies added another run, the Terps continued to show why they are one of the nation’s best offensive teams. Alleyne smashed a two-run homer, setting the program’s single-season record (24) while cutting the deficit to 10-7.
After the controversial call in the eighth, UConn padded its lead with another run in the bottom of the frame. The Terps went down in order in the ninth.