File:Little League 2021 District 2 Championship from The Frederick News-Post, July 2, 2021 (2).jpg

Summary

Brunswick wins Little League 9-11 District 2 championship By Greg Swatek for the Frederick News-Post, July 2, 2021

THURMONT — Just when things were starting to get interesting again, Henry Maeshiro’s glove snuffed out the rally. The 11-year-old shortstop for Brunswick’s 9-11 Little League team snagged a pair of line drives in the fourth inning Thursday evening that denied the host team, Thurmont Little League, multiple runs in what became an 18-8, District-2-championship-clinching win for Brunswick. How was Maeshiro, who is one of the smallest kids on the team, able to produce such defensive gems? Well, it’s really pretty simple. “I mean, I have wanted to play since I was 2 1/2, and I have been working on technique a lot defensively and offensively,” he explained. “Because my dad has been training with me my entire life. He has really impacted that. “I know a lot of kids will go home, and, in their spare time, will play a lot of video games. I play a little bit of video games. But I do three hours of training before I do that ... Sometimes. It kind of depends on the day. We have a batting cage and a pitching machine, and I work on that. We do a lot of training. We probably hit 1,000 baseballs per day.” Brunswick, which won three of its four games in the District 2 tournament, all by the 10-run rule, advances to the state 9-11 tournament, which begins a week from Saturday in Easton. Austin Loveless, the team’s 11-year-old first baseman, drove in the final run with his third double of the game, a lined shot to right field with two outs that scored Luke Wagoner. “Oh my gosh, I was so excited. Everyone was in the dugout, like I am going to hit a walkoff, and I’m just quiet,” Loveless said. “And I get up, and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh. I can do this.’ And I got up, and I just crushed it.” Though Maeshiro and his teammates came through with some timely defense, this was an offensive victory through and through for Brunswick. One night after being held to a single run by this Thurmont team to force a deciding game for the championship, the Brunswick bats roared back to life with a 13-run bottom of the second inning. Ryan Wheeler began the huge rally with a walk, and then Jacob Marker delivered the first big blow of the frame with a two-run double to left-center field. By the time the inning was over, Brunswick had sent 17 batters to the plate. At one point during the frame, they strung together seven consecutive hits. “We got to the right part of the lineup and got some guys on base that got to do some things,” Brunswick coach Kevin Marker said. “They just got to swinging. They were seeing the ball a little bit better [than Wednesday night].” Thurmont, which lost its very first game of the double elimination tournament, played on six consecutive days — winning on four of them — to reach the championship game. Despite scoring eight runs, Thurmont did not have a run batted in. It scored seven of its runs with bases-loaded walks, and the other on a fielding error. “This group of kids is a great bunch of kids,” Thurmont coach Chris Morlan said. “We didn’t get to practice a whole lot coming into this ... For these guys to mesh like they did, because they come from four different teams, and make a run in the tournament like they did, I can’t say enough about these kids.”