DeMatha claims first title in four years

It’s hard to imagine any team coming out of the Hyattsville sports powerhouse feeling slighted, but the Stags (17-10) played with chips on their shoulders. And even in a year of change — it was the first season in 25 years without longtime coach Charlie Sullivan, who retired after last season — DeMatha managed to finish on top.

‘‘This is [23] titles in 40 years, and for people to talk about other people in this conference as the dominant force in this conference, I took a little offense at that and I think our kids did, too,” said O’Connor, who won a WCAC title as a DeMatha player in 1994.

What a resurgence it was. The Stags outscored opponents, 39-13, in three rounds of the tournament. They would have had two postseason wins by the mercy rule, had it applied during the title game.

DeMatha’s offensive overpowering over the Cardinals (13-13), the surprising fifth seed who upset defending-champion Paul VI in the semifinals, was resounding, especially in its seven-run sixth inning.

Senior Nick Rivers punctuated the outburst. In the University of Delaware-bound catcher’s final high school at-bat, he pounded the third pitch over the center field wall, the farthest and tallest in the park. O’Connor called the 400-foot shot the ‘‘exclamation mark” of the game, and it gave DeMatha an 11-0 lead entering the seventh inning.

Just moments before, junior Chris Cook nearly had his own homer but instead cleared the bases with a three-run triple. He finished with four runs driven in.

‘‘Our bats definitely came alive right at the right time,” Rivers said. ‘‘We couldn’t expect this at all after how many runs we scored in the regular season, but I won’t complain with all these runs in the playoffs.”

The Stags finished strongly on the defensive end as well. They only used three pitchers in the tournament, as senior Santino Rosanova finished things off giving up just one earned run, in the seventh inning when most of DeMatha’s starters had gone to the dugout.

The Stags made the most dazzling defensive play of the evening as well on a fourth-inning double play. Cook dived to steal Kevin O’Keefe’s grounder in the gap and flipped to Brock McCallister. First baseman Brendan Lozupone nearly did a split as he fully extended his right leg to make the play.

‘‘I just try to make them all,” Cook said. ‘‘The least mistakes always wins the game, so I was just trying to make the least mistakes.”

The blast of runs and execution in the field was partially a result of the early-season tests DeMatha had from a tough schedule, O’Connor said. The Stags lost four of their first five games and didn’t have a winning record until late April. Halfway through their WCAC schedule, they were only a game above .500 in the conference.

But with at least six seniors always in the lineup and three more leading the pitching staff, the Stags said they finished the way they always thought they would.

‘‘These kids are full of character,” O’Connor said. ‘‘There’s no doubt about it. The best team won this conference.”

E-mail Kevin Hilgers at khilgers@gazette.net.