Homerun Baker takes long way to title

Colin Kraus had seen this before.

Check that. Colin Kraus had played in this before.

Way back when he was all of 12 years old, Kraus was on the Easton 10-12-year-old Little League all-star baseball team that lost its opener in the District 6 tournament, then plowed through the losers’ bracket en route to winning the title.

Now a coach for Homerun Baker’s 8-10 Little League all-stars, Kraus had a message for his team after it lost its opener to Tri City in this year’s District 6 tournament at Preston Elementary School.

“I was like, ‘Guys, so we lost,’” Kraus said. “We did not deserve to win the game. We came and we played scared.

“‘But I want to tell you something about coach Colin,’” Kraus continued. “’Coach Colin lost when I was 12 years old in the district tournament and came back all the way through the losers’ bracket and did the exact same thing and won the district. So it is possible.’”

Homerun Baker proved that, piecing together a six-game winning streak that ended Saturday, June 29, with a 22-10 victory over Tri City in the District 6 championship game.

Homerun Baker advances to the state tournament in Hagerstown, where it will face Southern Baltimore next Saturday at 7 p.m. in the first round.

“It was a team the whole tournament,” Homerun Baker manager Jeremiah Kunz said. “Whether they got down, the fight was still in them. It was just a great group of kids that rallied around each other, stayed in the game, and just fought their tail off to get where they got.

“Great group of coaches as far as Colin and Andrew (Worm),” Kunz continued. “Everybody was just in it together. And the parents. It’s just been a heckuva ride so far just all around with the group that we’ve brought together.”

But the ride started with a 4-3 loss to Tri City in the opener in the double-elimination tournament, prompting Coach Kraus’ history lesson.

Homerun Baker rebounded in impressive fashion, rolling over Cambridge (18-2), Denton (14-3), Caroline South (17-10) an Queen Anne (24-7), to set up a championship date with Tri City, where Remy Wrightson pitched a gem.

“The game he pitched in the semifinal game enabled us to get to the championship,” Colin Kraus said of Wrightson.

Despite Wrightson’s pitching, Tri City looked ready to cut Homerun Baker’s comeback story short as it carried a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning.

But Wyatt Kraus stroked a single down the left-field line to open the home sixth, moved to second on an error, then showed some head’s-up base-running while advancing to third and eventual scoring the tying run. Moments later, Brantlee Kennedy, who had walked, raced home with the winning run on a passed ball, giving Homerun Baker a 3-2 victory and setting up a second championship game.

Homerun Baker completed its comeback story the following day with a 22-10 victory over Tri City.

“The kids really showed a good eye at the plate,” Coach Kraus said in reference to Homerun Baker working 17 walks in the game.

Baker also got solid pitching and some key hits, with Crosby Graves driving in three runs, Connor Wilkins (2 for 3) knocking in a pair, and Coleson Hutchison (1 for 2) adding two RBIs.

Decker Worm started on the hill for Homerun Baker and worked the first three innings, before Wyatt Kraus came on in relief to help cement the win. The Talbot County team also got a lift from third baseman Law Stockhausen, who was playing infield for the first time in the tournament.

“The resiliency they showed because they were playing such bigger, taller kids. ...,” Colin Kraus said. “I told them, ‘You guys cannot give up. I truly feel you’re the better team. But you can’t give up.’ They didn’t.”