By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 25, 2008

ABERDEEN, Md., May 24 -- After coming close on several previous occasions, ninth-ranked La Plata finally captured its first state baseball championship.

Mike Boyden turned in a dominant pitching performance and helped himself at the plate, and Seth Donnelly hit a two-run homer, leading the Warriors to an 8-2 victory over Patapsco in the Maryland 3A final on Saturday before an estimated crowd of 1,500 at Ripken Stadium.

Boyden, who has signed to play for George Washington, had a run-scoring double in the second and kept Patapsco off the board for the first five innings. By that point, La Plata had built a 5-0 lead and was on its way to a championship game celebration after one previous title game loss and four semifinal losses.

Boyden did not allow a hit until the fourth, and only one runner advanced past second until the sixth, when Patapsco finally broke through for two runs before Boyden ended the rally with a pair of strikeouts. He finished with 14 strikeouts -- notching at least one in each of the final six innings -- and allowed just four hits.

Several Patapsco batters swung their bats into the dirt around home plate in frustration after striking out. One, after striking out looking in the bottom of the seventh, apparently said something to the home plate umpire and was ejected.

After Boyden struck out the side in the seventh -- the third time that he struck out three in an inning -- several La Plata fans, players and coaches streamed from the first base dugout to mob him.

It was a terrific finish for La Plata (21-2), which won its first 14 games, lost consecutive one-run decisions and then won its final seven games.

The Warriors needed extra innings to get by Seneca Valley in their 3A semifinal game on Wednesday, but unlike this weekend's three other championship games -- all decided by one run in the final at-bat -- there was no drama for La Plata.

After scoring twice in the second inning, La Plata made it 4-0 in the fourth. Mark Anderson reached on one of six errors by Patapsco, and Donnelly stroked his homer to left-center into the Patriots' bullpen.

In the sixth, Ross Hunsberger singled, and Jordan McGraner's two-out triple to the gap in left-center pushed La Plata's lead to 5-0.

Patapsco had won its previous 15 games, but the Baltimore County school was denied its first state title. The Patriots (20-3) had won their five previous playoff games by a total of six runs.