For a high school baseball player, running onto the field at Joe Cannon Stadium is a special experience. With an imposing water tower looming over the left field fence and enough seats to accommodate 1,500 fans, the Hanover ballpark has been called Anne Arundel’s own field of dreams.

Not every ballplayer has the chance to compete there. But shortly before his career came to an end, Southern High School’s Daniel Helmly Jr. stepped onto the Joe Cannon mound in a critical spot.

The Southern Bulldogs were leading the Northeast Eagles by one run at the end of the fifth. Neither team had built a strong season in 2023, but Southern was still the underdog. That didn’t appear to affect Helmly, who went on to pitch 2 1/3 hitless innings, securing a win in the senior’s second-to-last ball game.

Varsity coach Kyle Lynch, who’ll start his 10th season at Southern in the spring, remembered Helmly getting the last out. The young pitcher came off the mound screaming, filled with adrenaline and excitement. It’s not the way Lynch prefers his players to behave, and he told the senior to “act like you’ve been here before.”

“But coach,” Helmly replied, “I’ve never done this before!”

For Lynch, that moment was “Daniel in a nutshell.”

“Good kid and a good heart,” Lynch said. “He will definitely be missed.”

During a ride with a friend last Sunday afternoon, Helmly crashed his motorcycle into a turning SUV in Edgewater, near the South River Bridge. The driver and passengers inside the larger vehicle were taken to area hospitals with minor injuries, but Helmly was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 19.

“What a stunner. It always is,” said pitching coach Ken O’Brien, who helped turn Helmly into Southern’s go-to closer.

The two had met years before their time at the high school in Harwood, when Helmly played on a South County youth team with O’Brien’s son. Even then, he knew Helmly had an arm. Though the kid had raw talent and a quick fastball, Helmly held onto his hopes of being a catcher.

For years, that was his position. But when it came time to become a Bulldog, Helmly needed to adjust. Not only had a back injury made squatting behind the plate difficult but adding him to the roster gave the varsity team three catchers. Helmly struggled to move up into a starting role, O’Brien said.

By his senior season, the Lothian teenager wanted to lock in some playing time. O’Brien suggested he make a return to the mound and Helmly quickly went to work. The biggest step was revamping the teenager’s throwing mechanics, which had been geared to a quick release when he was behind the plate. Now, the goal was power and accuracy.

“It was a struggle early for sure, but he threw the ball hard and it was work and work and work and work,” O’Brien said. “And by the time we came to the end of the season, I wouldn’t want anybody else out on the mound.”

Both Southern coaches described Helmly as a reliable relief pitcher with potential who could pitch the team out of tough situations. His curveball — which Helmly called his “snap dragon” — was a point of pride. O’Brien said the pitch, which had more down than side-to-side movement, would “fall off the shelf.”

During his transition to the mound, however, it was Helmly’s determination that stuck out to his coaches. He was always the first person in the bullpen, O’Brien said. He asked questions. He made tweaks and he asked for feedback. To his coaches, his role in his development was a sign of maturity.

“He probably taught me as much, if not more, than I taught him,” O’Brien said.

The Bulldogs won only four games Helmly’s senior year, the last one being his save at Joe Cannon Stadium. Even so, Helmly was a source of levity, his coaches said, a “light” in the dugout. He was supportive, always ready to smooth over a rough patch with a joke or a quip on the bus ride back to Southern High.

“Crack a smile and then you move on,” O’Brien said.