But at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, only River Hill had Riley Finkelston. And the senior was the difference.
In a scoreless game, Finkelston drew a walk to open the fifth inning, beat close throws to steal second and third and, with his jersey entirely brown with dirt, beat another close throw home on senior Colin Chan’s suicide squeeze up the first base line to score the only run.
That was all the support Zatkowski needed, and the 1-0 win clinched the program’s first state championship since 2009.
“He did it all for us,” Chan said.
River Hill (21-4) never doubted itself, even after struggling to a 4-3 start. The Hawks drilled relentlessly, taking 150 groundballs every day at practice. They scheduled preseason scrimmages against Sherwood (the 4A champion) and Whitman (a 4A quarterfinalist). They also kept things just loose enough — players said the most important thing at practice was where they were going to eat together afterward.
And they also had great pitching, led by Zatkowski, a Duke commit. In addition to batting over .500, he displayed stunning command of the strike zone all season, and perhaps never more so than against the Mustangs. He showed a dizzying change in velocity between his heater and his off-speed stuff, and Coach Craig Estrin said he was a character his team could stand behind.
“He’s a better kid than he is a baseball player,” Estrin said.
On Saturday, nearly every at-bat for C. Milton Wright (18-6) began with a first-pitch strike. Most trips back to the dugout included shaking heads.
“He’s an animal,” Finkelston said.
But it was a similar story for the Hawks, who managed just one hit against Cannavale — a single to left field by senior Demetre Koutras. But when it came time for River Hill to execute, as Chan dropped down the team’s first suicide squeeze of the season and Finkelston tapped his biceps after scoring through contact from the Mustangs’ catcher, they did.
With five pitches to the final batter, with the tying runner on third base after two Mustangs had stolen bases, Zatkowski recorded strikeout No. 15 and delivered the Hawks a championship.
Gloves and hats flew into the air. Players draped championship medals around one another’s necks. Estrin delivered a victorious postgame speech. And his players delivered it right back to him.
“This was unbelievable,” Zatkowski said.