By Adam Chasen:
COLLEGE PARK, MD - Riding an eight-game win streak, the Gaithersburg Trojans were unable to make it nine, when they fell to Severna Park on Tuesday night. Gaithersburg held a 6-4 lead in the MCPS 4A baseball semifinals, but Severna Park scored double-digit runs in the 5th inning to put the game away, and eventually win by a final score of 19-6.

Severna Park (20-15) pitcher Andre Haushalter was effectively wild early on, but helped his own cause with a team leading 5 RBI's, and catapulting the offense during the 5th inning onslaught, before the game would be called under the 10-run mercy rule in six innings.

Errors and clutch defensive plays with runners on-base, characterized the first couple of innings. Both sides had chances that neither was able to take advantage of until the 3rd inning. Severna Park struck first, scoring four runs in the 3rd, but Gaithersburg found an answer.

Gaithersburg scored six runs in the 4th inning, chasing Haushalter from the game. The Trojans were certainly not crushing the ball on their way to six runs, but a combination of defensive errors, Haushalter's wildness, and effective small ball allowed them to cycle through the lineup.

A two-run cushion would prove to be well short of what Gaithersburg needed to hold off the explosive Severna Park offense, that now has scored double-digit runs in 17-games this season. Severna Park poured on the runs in the 5th, and added a few more in the 6th before the game was called.

With the win, Severna Park will now play Westminster on Friday in the Maryland 4A championship game at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, MD.

Gaithersburg finishes the season as the Maryland 4A West Region Champions, with a final record of 17 wins and 7 losses.