Athletics
Timing is Everything Spring Varsity Recap
david rosenfeld
From the middle of March through the beginning of May, in 48 head-to-head meetings with their MIAA “A” Conference rivals, Gilman’s spring varsity teams won 39 times. None of those five Gilman teams finished below third place in the league regular-season standings; three of the four that have a postseason playoff tournament reached the final. Unfortunately for the Greyhounds, the good news, though there was a lot of it, would stop there. Gilman was left to watch others celebrate with this spring’s championship trophies, a bit of a bitter ending to seasons filled with both individual and team achievement. In fact, with the exception of tennis, where Mount Saint Joseph went undefeated, Gilman beat the eventual MIAA champion head-to-head during the regular season. It was the scheduling that wasn’t good for the Greyhounds, not the quality of their performance. Baseball may have dealt with the most difficult ending for this spring’s teams. At first, the timing appeared perfect. Seeded second in the postseason double-
elimination tournament, Gilman beat Archbishop Curley at home and then won at top-seeded Calvert Hall, sending the Greyhounds to the championship and the Cardinals to the loser’s bracket. Four days later, predictably, the archrivals met again, this time at Ripken Stadium in what would be the first of two finals games. Calvert Hall, needing to win two games to win the title while Gilman needed just one, accomplished the feat. The first was by a 7-0 score, while the second game was a 4-2 comeback victory; Gilman’s offense hit a slow spot at just the wrong time. The Greyhounds finished the year 24-12 overall and reached the MIAA championship final for the second time in four seasons under head coach Larry Sheets. For the third year in a row, Gilman also played in the Baltimore President’s Cup tournament final at Camden Yards. Gilman and Calvert Hall played five times in the spring, including three times in the last six days of the season, in what has become one of the top rivalries in Baltimore high school sports.
summer 2013
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7/23/13 6:04 PM