The Burlington School wins first baseball state title in program history

ROCKY MOUNT — A cold-water bath on a hot and humid day provided a shock to the system for The Burlington School baseball coach Chad Holland, and with it, the realization of a dream and a plan several years in the making began to settle in for the Spartans.

“We’ve been working on this for four or five years,” Holland said. “Those seniors have been with me since day one. It's a bit of relief. This is the one thing I promised them if they gave me everything they had, this would be in the end."

The Burlington School used a seven-run sixth inning to defeat Westchester Country Day School 11-5 in Game 2 of the NCISAA Class 2-A best-of-3 state championship series Saturday at Faith Christian School, claiming the Spartans’ first baseball state championship in school history.

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“Just to see how far we've come from freshman year, it’s just crazy,” TBS senior pitcher Wagner Morrissette said. “We were getting the crap beat out of us a lot of times as freshmen. Coach Chad, he just always told us to trust the process and just don't rush anything because it's all gonna work out one day. This is the day that we've been dreaming of for years now. We finally accomplished it.”

A year after being beaten down by a combined score of 27-1 in two games of a state championship series loss to Wayne Country Day School, the top-seeded Spartans (22-6) got the job done this time around.

The Spartans loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the sixth when Holland called on sophomore Jason Johnson to pinch-hit.

“I thought about this moment leading up to it and I just wouldn't sleep at night if I let it go by,” Holland said of calling on Johnson. “Jason's a situational guy for us that can do little things like that. I'm always trying to find spots where those guys can come in and help the team and that's what he did.”

Johnson laid down a perfectly executed bunt to get aboard and push the go-ahead run across the plate, giving The Burlington School a 4-3 lead.

“That bunt was one of the biggest plays we've had this year,” Morrissette said. “To jumpstart that big inning, that’s what we needed to win this game.”

Sammy Edwards followed it up with a single to score two more Spartans runs.

“For the last three years, he's been one of my consistent guys that I know exactly what I'm gonna get from him,” Holland said. “So, I put him in in big spots and I know that he's going to give it his best effort to get it done and that's what he did on the mound and at the plate here with that two-RBI hit.”

A day earlier, Edwards pitched all five innings of a 12-1 TBS victory in Game 1 of the series, striking out five and allowing just two hits and one unearned run.

Later in the sixth inning Saturday, a passed ball scored another run, then RBI singles from Will Stadler and Zack Cimino extended the Spartans’ lead to 10-3 heading to the bottom of the sixth.

The Burlington School’s seven-run surge coincided with knocking Westchester Country Day’s starting pitcher Tate Vogler out of the contest. Bryce Hooker came in as relief for the second-seeded Wildcats (17-6) to start the sixth inning and the Spartans immediately took advantage.

“Just trying to get on base, working at-bats, working the guy’s pitch count,” said TBS senior Max Gustafson, who finished with two hits and two RBIs. “They didn’t have many arms left, so just trying to work the pitch count.”

On two separate occasions, The Burlington School brought relief pitchers into bases-loaded situations. In both instances — in the fourth and again in the fifth — Clay Haigh and then Cooper Kelly shut Wayne Country Day down to keep the score even, never allowing the Wildcats to take a lead.

“That was huge,” Gustafson said of the Spartans relievers. “It’s tough to come into those situations. It takes a special mindset to come in there and shut it down. That was huge for us because that game could’ve turned around quickly if we didn’t get that done.”

For Holland, it’s what he’s come to expect out of both pitchers.

“Clay and Cooper have been those guys; they’ve done that during the season,” Holland said. “Yeah, this is a big moment, but those are the guys that I go to in big moments. I want them to get it done and they expect to get it done and that's what they did (in this game).”

David Kehrli is a sports reporter at the Burlington Times-News and USA Today Network. You can reach him at david.kehrli@thetimesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidKehrliTN. Subscribe to the Burlington Times-News here.

This article originally appeared on Times-News: The Burlington School baseball surges to claim NCISAA state title