Published: April 10, 2009 12:04 am      

There are bonds that hold forever

Allegany High School baseball coach Duane McMinn, your basic early-to-bed, early-to-riser during the school week, decided what the heck. On Wednesday night he would stay up late to watch a baseball game from the West Coast as 22-year-old rookie Nick Adenhart would make his fourth major-league start for the Los Angeles Angels.

Adenhart, of course, was a can’t-miss prospect back on the day he pitched against McMinn’s Allegany Campers in, yes, THAT game, for which a strong case can be made as being the best high school baseball game ever played in these parts.

It was May 13, 2003, a Maryland Class 1A West Region playoff game at Campobello, and in front of 14 major-league scouts, two future major leaguers, Williamsport High’s Adenhart and Allegany High lefthander Aaron Laffey, produced one of the most remarkable pitching performances in Maryland scholastic baseball history. Laffey, a senior, struck out 19, walked only one, and allowed two singles. Adenhart, a junior, struck out 14, walked one, hit two, and pitched a no-hitter against the Campers. And lost, 1-0.

“The dominance of both pitchers is what I’ll remember the most,” McMinn said Thursday afternoon, just hours after learning Adenhart had been killed in a hit-and-run crash in Fullerton, Calif., shortly after pitching six shutout innings in a 3-0 Angels loss to Oakland. “You could tell both of them were destined for something special. The sky was the limit for both of them.”

Many a pro prospect possesses an assortment of pitches that will bring the scouts and their radar guns to the neighborhood, but Adenhart had even more: the physical and mental make-up, and the awareness of what it takes to become a big-leaguer. And a good one, at that.

“We had scouted (Williamsport) before (the playoff game), and, of course, we saw him that night,” McMinn said. “He was a tall, lanky kid, but he made everything appear so effortless. You really couldn’t get a gauge on how hard he was throwing unless it was coming at you. He was very calm, and very composed.

“He came up the next year and no-hit us again in the first game of the season ... He won that game, though.”

On Wednesday night, Adenhart scattered seven hits over his six scoreless innings and worked out of two bases-loaded jams, striking out five and walking three, which pleased Adenhart’s former opponent to no end.

“It was fun watching him pitch,” McMinn said. “He did a lot of the same things we saw before, and it was just a good feeling to have seen somebody up close and to have coached against somebody who would go on and play on the big stage and be able to pitch the way he did.

“He did well (Wednesday night). His breaking ball was filthy.”

It goes without saying, Aaron Laffey is McMinn’s favorite baseball player; but it can also be said that, other than Laffey’s pro career, McMinn followed Adenhart’s as close, if not closer, than any other professional player. Even six years later, unspoken bonds stretch from one coast to the other between all who take part in something so memorable as that May 13, 2003 high school baseball game — sometimes, particularly between competitors.

“I would say so,” McMinn said. “After that game, we enjoyed following Nick ever since he was drafted. Going all the way back to the minors, we’d look at his stats every time he pitched.”

Or stay up late on a school night to watch him make his fourth major-league start.

The memory of Adenhart will stay with all who followed his story, which included his coming back from Tommy John surgery to pitch in the big leagues. That includes all of professional baseball and much of amateur baseball, including right here, beginning six years ago when Nick Adenhart came our way and, along with Aaron Laffey, gave us a baseball game for the ages.

“Just shocking,” McMinn said before hanging up the phone. “Stunned ... I got the call this morning, and found out the news. And I’m still shocked.

“All of us here ... Our thoughts and prayers go out to Nick’s family and to all of his friends ...

“Just a tragedy.”

Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.