File:Little League 2018, Chase Ebberts goes high for a throw from home, backed up by Riley Roosa, July 2018.jpg

Brunswick Sports: Senior Little League Tournament 2018

Caroline's Curler fans 15, shuts out Brunswick Senior Little League By Bill Cauley from the Frederick News post, July 11, 2018

Photo Caption:

Brunswick’s Chase Ebberts goes high for a throw from home, backed up by Riley Roosa, as Caroline’s Zach Towers slides safely into second base in the third inning during their Senior Little League game Tuesday at Brunswick High School. Staff photo by Dan Gross

BRUNSWICK — Caroline ace Chris Curler had Brunswick baffled at the plate on Tuesday in the winners’ bracket final of the state Senior Little League Tournament at Brunswick High School.

With a mix of fastballs, curveballs and some offspeed pitches thrown in for good measure, Curler struck out 15 Brunswick batters over 6 2-3 innings and 95 pitches, setting up a 9-0, two-hit win for Caroline.

“What can you say? The guy pitched a heck of a game,” Brunswick manager Steve Ebberts said. “We just could not hit him.”

The loss drops Brunswick into an elimination-round game with Rising Sun at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Rising Sun eliminated Valley 7-6 on Tuesday. If Brunswick wins Wednesday, it earns a rematch with Caroline in Thursday’s 6 p.m. title game.

For Brunswick to win the state championship, it must win three straight. First, it must defeat Rising Sun, then win two straight over Caroline.

Curler retired nine straight Brunswick batters over the first three innings, including the first seven on strikeouts. He retired all three batters in the second on called third strikes.

It wasn’t until Chase Ebberts beat out an infield single in the bottom of the fourth that Curler’s run was over, but he already had eight strikeouts in the book before Ebberts broke the hitless streak. Ebberts got as far as third on the combination of a wild pitch and balk, but he did not score.

After that, Brunswick was unable to advance a runner beyond first base.

The only other hit Curler allowed was a two-out single to left in the fifth by Nathaniel Stuyck. Zach Towers closed out the win for Caroline, striking out three of four batters in the final 1 1-3 innings.

While Curler’s superb effort on the mound was the center of attention on Tuesday, Ebberts didn’t deny the fact that a better defensive effort would’ve made for a better game.

Of the nine Caroline runs, just one was earned. Brunswick was plagued with error after error, averaging about one per inning. At game’s end, Brunswick had amassed eight errors.

“You take away those errors, it could’ve been a one-run ball game,” Ebberts said. “Too many mistakes on our part.”

Two errors in the top of the first inning plated Caroline’s first run. It got three more runs in the third on two Brunswick errors. A mix of two wild pitches, a dropped third strike and another error allowed Caroline to tack on two more runs in the fourth.

Caroline took advantage of three Brunswick runs in the sixth for three runs.

Through all of Brunswick’s mistakes, starter Dalton Cooper never wavered. He went 5 1-3 innings, allowing four hits and striking out 10 with one walk.

“Dalton pitched a fantastic game,” Steve Ebberts said. “He just kept on pitching, throwing the strikes, even when things weren’t going well for us.”

Stuyck relieved Cooper in the sixth with one out, allowing no runs with two hits.

Mason Pate had two hits for Caroline. Curler had a double with an RBI. Towers had an RBI.