When Hagerstown and Shenandoah met for the 2A No. 44 sectional title on Monday, June 2, it was a battle between heavyweight programs. The Shenandoah Raiders entered the game ranked seventh and the three-time defending Mid-Eastern Conference champion. Hagerstown came in ranked 14th and the two-time defending Tri-Eastern Conference champion. Tiger senior left-hander Kaagen Kendall, an Indiana South All-Star selection, went to the mound for the Tigers. The Raiders countered with hard-throwing junior Drew Fredenburg. In a regular season meeting, the Tigers won 7-2; on Monday the Raiders turned the tables with a 6-2 victory.
Graham Vinson drew a walk to start the first inning, but the Raiders executed a double play on a ground ball from the next batter and Fredenburg got out of the inning with no damage. The Raiders took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Kendall, who had only given up two runs all season, surrendered back-to-back home runs to Fredenburg and Collin Osenbaugh.
Neither team scored again until Hagerstown put up a single run in the top of the fourth inning to cut their deficit to a single run. Vinson singled, advanced to second, then third, and eventually scored on a grounder from Kaden Hall. The Raiders responded with a run in the bottom of the fourth. The Tigers put up another run in the top of the fifth inning when Jaxon Hale drew a walk, stole second and scored when the Raider third baseman fell down and dropped the ball trying to tag Hale at third base.
The Raiders had runners on first and second, with one out in the bottom of the fifth, when Hagerstown issued an intentional walk to load the bases and set up a force out at any base. The next Shenandoah batter hit a ground ball that looked like a double play ball that would have ended the inning, but the first base umpire ruled that the Hagerstown first baseman pulled his foot and ruled the runner safe. The Raiders put three runs on the scoreboard before the Tigers could get out of the inning and went on to a 6-2 win.
Regular-season wins and conference titles are old hat for both programs, but it was the first time in 19 years that the Shenandoah Raiders have been crowned a sectional champion.
The Raiders were limited to six hits from six different players. Hagerstown collected five hits. Tiger senior Will Combs, with two hits, was the only player for either team to produce more than one hit.
It was the last game in a Hagerstown baseball uniform for seniors Ethan Campbell, Will Combs, Aiden Grover, Anthony Kelley, Kaagen Kendall, Will King and Jackson Ward.
Hagerstown head coach Jay Hale said the first inning was not the start the team needed. “Shenandoah is usually not a high-scoring team,” Hale said. “So, I felt like if we could get out of the first inning with no damage, we would be fine. When we got behind, we kept trying to chip away, but we could never get the break we needed. Shenandoah is a good team and they played well, but this loss hurts.”
Hagerstown (15-10) 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 2
Shenandoah (21-4) 2 0 0 1 3 0 0 6
Hagerstown hits: Ethan Campbell, Vinson, Combs (2), Jackson Ward — Shenandoah hits: Aiden Coffey, Micah Cole, Maddux Davis, Fredenburg, Garrett May, Osenbaugh
A version of this article appeared in the June 11 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.