Aug 8, 2015 5 min read

Hagerstown third baseman Chris Martin settled into the batter’s box at Lew Hays Pony Field, tapped his bat twice on home plate and stared down Mexico relief pitcher Javier Montaño Jr. in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday afternoon.

There were runners on first and third with one out, and the East Zone champions were trailing Mexico by one run.

As Montaño Jr. started his delivery, Martin thought “base hit,” then fought off the inside pitch to right field for a game-tying single, putting the winning run on third base.

“When I saw it go through, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is awesome,'” Martin said. “I’m here at the world series on a beautiful day and I come up with a big hit. It felt great.”

Chase Miller sent the first pitch of the next at-bat to the right side of the infield, scoring Ben Burgan from third base to give Hagerstown a 6-5 walk-off victory over Mexico and kept the East Zone champions’ Pony League World Series title hopes intact.

Hagerstown advances to the winner’s bracket, where it will face the winner of San Bernardino, Calif., and Vienna, Austria, Monday at 8 p.m. Mexico drops to the loser’s bracket of the double-elimination tournament to face Washington today at 5 p.m.

It was the Hagerstown’s third come-from-behind win in an elimination game in two weeks. With two outs in the seventh inning during the super regional championship, Martin hit a two-run homer to give Hagerstown the lead. In the East Zone championship, it trailed Brooklyn, N.Y., by two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and scored three times for a walk-off victory.

“We’ve been there so many times before. The kids play for one another,” Hagerstown manager Dave Barr said. “They are great teammates and they always believe they’re going to end up on top. We don’t have a superstar on the team. We have 15 kids who play for each other.”

After seeing a 3-0 lead evaporate, Hagerstown found itself three outs away from entering the loser’s bracket. Mexico starting pitcher Rodrigo Garate, who had nine strikeouts, walked the first two batters of the seventh inning before Montaño Jr. entered the game.

Hagerstown shortstop Ben Burgan grounded into a fielder’s choice, leaving runners on first and third and sending Martin to the plate. After Martin drove in his second run of the game to tie the score, Miller wanted to earn Hagerstown its first win at the world series since 2008.

Miller, who went 4-for-4 with a home run and three RBI, hit a ground ball to Mexico shortstop Mario Sarabia. Sarabia flipped the ball to second base for the forceout but the throw to first base for the double play was wide. Burgan, however, had already crossed the plate for the winning run.

“I knew that if I hit it to the left side, they might try to go home, so I knew I had to go to the right,” Miller explained. “I didn’t hit it as good as I thought I could, but I still got the run in, so it’s just as good as a normal hit.

“We’ve had some tough times, but we’ve always come back and won. We always seem to just hit the ball. It’s great to come to the world series and represent Hagerstown.”

Hagerstown took the lead in the second inning when Martin drove a fastball off the wall in right-centerfield for a single and Miller followed with a single to right. Seamus Murray hit a ground ball to Sarabia, who tried to turn a double play, but his errant throw went into the outfield, allowing Martin to score.

Two innings later, Miller drove a fastball over the fence in right-centerfield for a two-run homer and a 3-0 lead for Hagerstown, which added an additional run in the fifth on an RBI single by Martin.

“We always preach to look fastball and react to the curve,” Barr said. “I thought (Garate) threw an outstanding game today, but we are a pretty good fastball hitting team and eventually, we’ll catch up to you.”

Miller started on the mound for Hagerstown and was perfect until he allowed a one-out double in the fourth inning. Though he escaped that jam, Mexico broke through in the fifth inning when Jose Tirado, Garate and Montano hit three consecutive singles off Miller to narrow the deficit to 3-1. Another run scored when Hagerstown committed two throwing errors on one play.

Cameron Snyder entered in relief and threw to two batters – walking one and hitting the other – before Barr turned to Burgan. Sarabia delivered a sacrifice fly to score Garate, Hector Enciso hit an RBI single up the middle and Miguel Ojeda gave Mexico the 5-4 lead with a run-scoring infield single.

“We lost concentration in the game, so the game left our hands,” Mexico manager Javier Montano said. “Until then, the team played really well. It was a close game.”