STORY & PHOTOS: Chesapeake Baseball Defeats Arundel Amid 7-1 Start

Any number of plays could be singled out as the game-winner in Chesapeake’s game against Arundel on April 8.

The Cougars needed all of them to come away with a 5-4 win on the road.

Tyler Shadle went 4-for-4 with two RBIs, Colton Spangler hit a solo home run, starting pitcher Colby Buckheit was buoyed by strong defense over 5.2 innings, and Chesapeake thwarted the Wildcats to improve to 7-1 on the season.

Entering a tough stretch of the schedule, the Cougars kept the strong start to their season rolling.

“The south [division teams] all have really nice records, so this is a good way to start for us, for sure,” said coach Ken King, whose Cougars added Arundel to a list of defeated opponents that includes Eastern Tech, Meade, Glen Burnie, Old Mill, Northeast and Southern.

Against Arundel, the Cougars deployed skills in all facets of the game and in doing so were able to sweep a few mistakes under the rug to come away victorious. They jumped out to a lead in the second when Lee Robinson led off with a walk. As they have so often done successfully in the past, Chesapeake sought to paper-cut Arundel to death by bunting, pushing a run across here and there, and relying on strong pitching.

That plan went fortuitously awry. When Tommy Lewis couldn’t quite get the bunt down over two strikes, he instead ripped a triple into the wall in right center. Robinson made a late break on the play but still scored on a play at the plate, and Chesapeake led 1-0.

Arundel got the lead back with a walk and back-to-back singles in the second, but Spangler regained the lead for the Cougars. The lefty-hitting senior smacked a two-strike pitch for a deep fly to right and didn’t quite break into a run, thinking the ball would be caught, but it just kept carrying and cleared the fence for a home run and a 2-1 lead.

Again Arundel strung together hits to tie the game at 2-2, but damage was limited by Chesapeake’s strong infield defense. Young made a stellar backhanded play on a grounder and a throw from deep short for a putout to get Buckheit out of the first, and the Cougars’ Young, Brandon Goodman and Lewis turned a 6-4-3 double play in the second. Spangler, James Hawkins, Michale Mulford and Daniel Stern manned the outfield and corralled several fly outs.

Buckheit scattered nine hits over 5.2 innings and said his defense helped his cause.

“A couple of the innings I didn’t have my best stuff,” said Buckheit, a senior. “Just trying to throw pitches over the plate and let the defense make plays.”

Sitting on two singles, Shadle tripled in the fifth inning, and courtesy runner Dalton Nicklow came around to score on an RBI fielder’s choice by Lewis to give Chesapeake a 3-2 lead.

Shadle again did damage in the sixth. Goodman reached on an error, and Young worked an at-bat for a walk. Both scored when Shadle ripped a double to the gap in left center, giving Chesapeake a 5-2 lead.

The senior catcher is batting a preposterous .XXX through eight games.

“I’m just trying to find the right pitch and drive it,” said Shadle, who had two strikes in the count on three of his base hits. He said he’s only been asked to lay down a bunt once this season, but he’s glad the Cougars have a full arsenal and can play small ball when needed or break the game open with contact hitting. “It’s kind of good to be able to do both. We can lay down the bunt but also have the hits to back it up and keep adding runs.”

The Cougars needed the insurance. Arundel came back with three hits in the sixth and capitalized on an error to score two runs, but Hawkins and Spangler made plays in the outfield. Young came on to relieve Buckheit with the bases loaded and allowed a walk, but he got the final out in the sixth and preserved the lead at 5-4.

In the seventh, Spangler made a catch in the outfield for the first out. Goodman, now at shortstop, made a strong backhanded pick and throw for a 6-3 putout. Young got the final batter on a called third strike.

Shadle, who caught the whole game, said the pitching of Buckheit and Young has strengthened over the years.

“I’ve been playing with them for well before high school. It’s easy to connect with them and easy to do a lot of things on the mound when you’re throwing your game,” said Shadle. “When you’ve got a connection with them, you kind of know what they’re going to throw, where they’re going to throw, how it’s going to break and move, and it makes the game easier.”

With a strong returning core and younger players stepping into their roles, King challenged his Cougars to become leaders.

“I’m seeing a lot of quiet leaders, and I want to see some vocal leaders,” he said. “We’re trying to find that. It’s not something that a lot of kids are comfortable with because with the burden of saying something comes the accountability for it, and that’s the piece that teenagers are maybe reluctant to take, the accountability piece. So, we can’t make anybody a loud leader, but boy it certainly is good to follow one.”

Notably, the Cougars defeated Northeast 14-0 on April 1.

It’s early, and the Cougars are once again in strong position to compete for the county championship and top region seeding, but King said that is not the focus.

“We’re just trying to win ball games and get better,” he said. “We played OK here. We missed a couple balls that we should have gotten. So we still measure ourselves against a pretty high standard. We’re not there yet, but we hope we can get there, and we’re going to keep working to get there.”