Another title provides spark

Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory gives Prince George’s its second state baseball championship in three years

‘‘Hopefully, it brings back some good baseball to the county,” said Northwestern High coach Tony Tomasetti. ‘‘Roosevelt has set the bar high and you want to get to the top. It might bring the county back to what it should be — good baseball teams able to compete with anybody.”

‘‘I think what this shows is that the Prince George’s County teams can play with anyone, the only problem is we don’t have enough competition in our county,” said Bowie High coach Bob Estes. ‘‘You see this team, you see Bowie, you see High Point, they can compete with anybody.”

Estes was an assistant coach with the 2004 Bulldogs squad that won the 4A title. Bowie’s win was the county’s first since 1984 when the Bulldogs (4A) and Gwynn Park (3A) won championships.

While Bowie, Gwynn Park and Roosevelt have won state championships, only two other schools — High Point (1990 and 2002) and Oxon Hill (1987 and 1991) — have reached the state semifinals since 1984.

In recent years, the county’s 3A⁄2A⁄1A teams have struggled mightily against non-county competition. County 3A teams were outscored, 77-7, in four games in this year’s 3A South Region playoffs while the 2A teams managed two runs in three games in 2A South play.

The lone bright spot was Surrattsville, which reached the 1A South finals before losing to first-year varsity program Marriotts Ridge from Howard County. The Hornets were the first non-County 4A team to play in a region final since 2002. Many coaches are hoping the return of middle school baseball will help boost interest and performance.

‘‘You have to get younger kids playing,” said Roosevelt coach Andrew Capece. ‘‘I don’t know if this will have a long-term effect, but hopefully, we can do other things to spur it on. We’ve got two of the last four championships. That’s not bad considering you’ve got Anne Arundel, Montgomery, Charles and Baltimore schools in the 4A.”

The Raiders’ championship came at the expense of two Montgomery County schools. Roosevelt beat Quince Orchard in the semifinals and previously unbeaten Sherwood in the title game. Roosevelt had been winless in nine previous trips to the state semifinals.

‘‘A lot of people underestimated Prince George’s baseball,” said Raiders center fielder Dante Dozier. ‘‘We came out here and we showed we have what it takes to play with anybody.”

‘‘When I was growing up, we were just as good as Montgomery [County], we’d get our Babe Ruth teams and go beat everybody,” said Capece. ‘‘It’s fallen off a little bit because football and basketball have dominated, but there’s no reason why we can’t. You can live in Prince George’s County and play baseball.”

E-mail Derek Toney at dtoney@gazette.net.