Sports
Broad Run Baseball Advances to State Semifinals
Spartans hold off another late rally to beat Jamestown 5-2 and move closer to a state title
Late in Broad Run's VHSL AA state quarterfinal game against Jamestown Tuesday night, the Spartan fans and players were experiencing a little bit of what baseball hall of famer Yogi Berra called "Deja vu all over again."
Fresh off a 6-5 regional championship victory over Potomac Falls – where the Spartans held off a furious late inning rally by the Panthers – Broad Run headed into the sixth inning against Jamestown with a commanding 5-0 lead and the game seemingly in hand. Starting pitcher and Dulles District Player of the Year Taylor Clarke was in a groove, and the Spartans seemed poised to cruise to the shut out win.
Yet the hearts of the Spartan faithful likely started to flutter when Jamestown's Tommy Vitaletti took a golf swing at Clarke's low and away sixth inning pitch and sent it over the leftfield fence for a two-run homer. Then, in the seventh inning with only one out, Jamestown's Liam Shannon and Liam Lowery each hit singles up the middle, leaving Clarke and the Spartans facing the prospect of another down-to-the-wire finish with a 5-2 lead and runners in scoring position.
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But rather than wilt in the face of such adversity, Clarke showed the mettle of a true champion, striking out the next Jamestown batter and forcing Matt Perry into a harmless grounder to Connor Jessop, who applied the tag at second for the game's final out.
"Taylor did a phenomenal job all night," said Jessop after the game about his starting pitcher.
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Jessop led the Spartans on offense with a single, a double and one run scored, and was also called out at the plate on a very close – and somewhat controversial – play in the bottom of the fifth inning (see video of complete postgame interview with Jessop, including his thoughts on the play at the plate).
Clarke earned a complete game 5-2 victory, striking out nine batters and allowing just the two runs off the sixth inning homerun.
The Spartans now travel to Calfee Park in Pulaski, VA, for Friday's AA state semifinal game against Tunstall. The game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
Good luck to the Spartans as they try for their first baseball state title since 1991!
