Published: July 11, 2008 10:44 am         

Northern voted unanimous No. 1

Huskies become third team to win back-to-back baseball titles

CUMBERLAND - The Northern Huskies, who won their first Area title a year ago, made it two in a row by claiming this year's crown by unanimous vote and joined a select group of teams that have repeated as Times-News Area baseball champions.

Coached by Phil Carr, Northern became just the third school to win back-to-back titles. The others that were able to repeat in the 22-year history of the area baseball poll were Southern, which did it three times, and Allegany.

The Area championship trophy, sponsored by The Sports Shoppe of Downtown Cumberland, will be presented to the Huskies at an upcoming athletic event at Northern.

The Huskies, who won the area title with a 22-2 record a year ago, went 17-2 this season.

The Area championship adds to the Northern program's success and consistency. The Huskies are 57-8 over the last three seasons, and 98-29 over the last six.

"It's definitely harder to repeat than to win it the first time. When you win it, then you're the target the next year for everyone else,'' said Carr. "I felt we faced everybody's best pitchers most of the time. Our kids were able to rise to the occasion pretty much every time."

Northern won the final Western Maryland Interscholastic League title last year, and won the first Appalachian Mountain Athletic Conference crown this year with an 11-1 record and three-game lead over runner-up Allegany.

The Huskies had only two returning full-time starters from a year ago in Matt Sisler and Patrick Brady, but they didn't seem to miss a beat.

"I think what we did last year seemed to all carry over into this year,'' said Carr, whose team finished runner-up in the state tournament in 2007. "The motto going into the season was to finish what we didn't finish last year. That was the theme from the first practice to the last out of the playoffs.

"When you win, it's contagious. Our kids this year won a lot of close games because we've been winning them the last few years. The guys just always found ways to win."

One of the big ways was by pitching, and the Huskies had one of the strongest staffs around with Sisler (6-2, 2.06 ERA), Trey Beasom (5-0, 1.60), Kyle Gillum (3-0, 0.91), and Brandon Beachy (3-0, 2.33). They had a 2.34 team ERA and 169 strikeouts with only 47 walks in 123 innings.

"Pitching was a big strength, and we relied a lot on our pitchers,'' said Carr. "But if you get good pitching you still have to play good defense, and our defense was good, too. And the seniors we had coming back provided a lot of leadership."

The Huskies batted .351 as a team, with Jeff Smith the leader at .444. Six others, with at least 40 at-bats, hit .300 or better: Justin Rosenberger .396; Sisler .368; Beasom .365; Dan Warnick .358; Brady .333, and Gillum .302. Warnick had seven doubles and 20 RBIs, Brady six doubles, Gillum three homers and 22 RBIs, and Beasom a team-high 23 hits and 16 RBIs.

The Huskies started the year with an 11-game winning streak that began with two victories in the Hancock Easter Tournament. They were followed by wins over Hampshire, Allegany, Southern, Fort Hill, Bishop Walsh and two wins over Keyser and Frankfort.

The first, and only, regular-season defeat was to Mountain Ridge, 8-4. The top four teams that week also lost, and the Huskies kept the No. 1 spot in the poll.

Wins over Allegany, Bishop Walsh, Salisbury, Southern and Fort Hill gave Northern a 17-1 regular-season record, which proved to be enough to clinch the area championship despite a 3-2 upset loss to Mountain Ridge in the Class 1A West Region playoffs.

Moorefield finished runner-up in the Area poll. East Hardy and Mountain Ridge tied for third, while Allegany and Pendleton County tied for fifth.

Four sports writers voted each week in the Times-News poll. Ratings points were awarded on a five-point scale, with five points for a first-place vote and one point for a fifth-place vote.

Contact Mike Mathews at mmathews@times-news.com.