Maury and Salem have some history when it comes to playoff games in Region 5A lately.
In February of 2018, the Salem basketball as a No. 8 seed stunned top-seeded Maury on its way to a regional title and State Tournament berth. Maury recovered this year quite well, winning the program's first State Championship in nearly 100 years in basketball. On the football side, the two programs played to a tie that wasn't broken until the final play in the regional semifinals when the Commodores edged Salem on a field goal.
This time, baseball took center stage at War Memorial Stadium with the two teams both entering the quarterfinals at 15-5 overall, where either the fourth-seeded Commodores or fifth-seeded Sun Devils would earn a date on Monday with 20-1 Hickory.
Larry Gordon’s Maury Commodores sent Ben Capehart, a VMI commit to the mound to oppose Colton Robinson, a fellow VMI commit for Aaron Brewer’s Salem SunDevils. Capehart went six innings, before giving way to closer Dalton Barham, while Robinson got into the fifth before Austin Strader replaced him.
Pitching was quality on both sides, but the only offense came from Maury with two RBIs from Jacob Jackson, and an RBI from John Bonney as well as one from Gabriel Mendoza to account for Maury’s four runs in the 4-0 win.
“It feels good, I’m truly blessed to go on to the next round,” Jackson said, “Just hoping to get it done next round and get a berth in the state tournament.”
Sailing wasn’t all smooth for the ‘dores though, as Barham came on in the sixth with bases loaded and no outs, in a key situation for Maury before striking out the next three batters, and finishing off the game to seal the win.
“In that situation, I wasn’t really thinking," remarked Barham, a Norfolk State commit. “As a pitcher, you need to throw strikes and trust yourself, which is what I did and luckily they couldn’t hit it.”
My heartbeat was really beating, as anyone’s would, but you have to stay composed, trust your stuff, and trust in all your mechanics and get through it. When I got them out there in the sixth. I felt I crushed all their hopes of getting back and my defense did a good job in the seventh.”
Maury will return to War Memorial on Monday at 4 PM to face Hank Kraft’s Hickory Hawks, an opponent they know all too well after a pitching controversy forced Hickory to forfeit their semifinal matchup with Maury last season after a protest by the Commodores.
“Coming back to face Hickory means we can show them we belong, it’s a statement game for this senior class,” Barham said.
Yet, the Commodores know that Hickory will have plenty of motivation and be no easy task, given they enter on a 16-game winning streak. Gordon is pleased to have his squad advance in the postseason yet again.
“It was a good game. They have been working hard,” Coach Gordon said. “I have a young team, hit a little lull in the middle of the season, but this is the team I know we have and being so young, I think we are going to be good.”
Maury moves to 16-5 with the win, while Salem ends their season at 15-6. A victory will give the Commodores their second straight State Tournament berth.
