La Plata baseball team poised for state title run
Warriors open season against Leonardtown
After ending Thursday’s practice on an unusually warm late winter afternoon through running drills and by negotiating the field tarp, a trio of La Plata High School baseball players admitted their personal goals this spring are genuinely secondary to their ultimate team goal.
La Plata seniors Zach Harris, Dean Kirby and Michael Gill all attempted to keep their goals sedate, but the prospects of potentially playing for a state title at Ironbirds Stadium in Aberdeen quickly entered the thought process.
“I’ve already signed [to Alderson-Broaddus in West Virginia], so I don’t really have any more personal goals,” Kirby said. “For
me, this year is all about winning a fourth straight [Class 2A South] region title and heading back to states. That’s really the ultimate goal now. We want to win SMAC, region and states.”
La Plata will open the 2019 slate this Friday against Leonardtown, the same squad the Warriors defeated in the SMAC championship game last spring. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
While that victory may have helped propel La Plata to another region title and berth in the state semifinals, it proved to be a small consolation prize at year’s end when the Warriors were thwarted in their state title bid.
“It was great to beat Leonardtown in the SMAC championship game, but we still didn’t end the season the way we wanted it to end,” Harris said. “Winning states, like we did my freshman year, was really the main goal. We came up a little short of that. So this year it’s really all about getting back to states and ending with another title.”
While the La Plata seniors all had one eye looking north toward the state title game in Aberdeen, Warriors head coach John Childers maintained his contention that the team’s main focus now is Friday’s season opener against Leonardtown. Also a part of the team’s schedule is two games this spring against North Point (April 3, 29), another against McDonough (April 5), one at Arundel (April 18) before ending the regular season at Huntingtown (May 6).
“I know the seniors all want another chance to play for a state title this spring, but that’s a long way off,” Childers said. “We have a long season ahead of us and it all starts with [Friday’s] game against Leonardtown. They’re a ver y good team and they have goals of winning a 4A state title this spring.”
Kirby will be part of a formidable one-two pitching punch that also includes junior Ryan Calvert, and Harris will get ample time behind the plate and junior transfer Brandon DeAtley will get time on the mound and at catcher. Juniors Tyler Moody and Jake Gleason will also play key roles for the Warriors this spring. Harris plans to play two seasons at the College of Southern Maryland before transferring to a four-year school.
“We have two of the best pitchers in the county,” Harris said of Calvert and Kirby. “You know they’re both going to go out there and give you five, six, seven good innings. We have a few other guys that look like they can pitch and we have some freshmen who are going to get playing time. It all starts with the pitching. We have good pitching and we have a good lineup, too.”
“For the first time in a while, I have no freshmen on the team and just three seniors,” Jones said.
Delph spent time last season on the pitcher’s mound and playing shortstop for the Eagles. She finished with a .421 batting average at the plate, collected 24 hits and scored 27 runs while hitting one home run.
“I’ve been working hard in the offseason so I can just come out and do my job so we can get some wins,” Delph said.
On the pitcher’s mound, Delph finished with a 7-4 record, recorded 55 strikeouts with a 2.03 ERA and was an All-SMAC honorable mention selection.
Cross will look to improve upon a .566 batting average last season from her sophomore campaign where she collected 30 hits, scored 27 runs, recorded 11 stolen bases and was named an All-SMAC Potomac Division selection after spending time at shortstop and in the outfield for North Point.
Eagles outfielder Powell enters her junior campaign looking to improve upon a sophomore season in which she recorded 30 hits, 29 RBIs and was an All-SMAC Potomac Division selection.
North Point is scheduled to slated to open up regular season play at 4:30 p.m. Friday at home against Huntingtown.