Northeast baseball rallied for a 6-3 win over North County and kept itself in position to play for a county championship the same way it built the program up from the cellar.

“We play as one,” junior pitcher Jayden Saraullo said.

Saraullo allowed just one through five shutout innings. But in the bottom of the sixth, the Knights finally got the better of him and tied the score at 3.

Saraullo’s battery mate, catcher Cooper Meeks, socked a triple on the first pitch in the top of the seventh.

All Landon Shriver had to do was put the ball in play to give Northeast (15-4) the lead back. He worked a 2-2 count and fouled off several pitches, but Shriver knew he’d eventually get the pitch he wanted: a fastball.

His single to shallow right field scored Meeks for a 4-3 lead, and the Eagles added some insurance by loading the bases before Shriver jolted home on a wild pitch. Carter Schreiber put another on the board with a sacrifice fly before taking the mound and shutting the Knights down in the bottom of the frame.

A win on Friday over Arundel will send the Eagles to Joe Cannon Stadium for Tuesday’s Anne Arundel County championship game.

“We’ve been through the bad, the decent, the good,” Shriver said, “and now we’re here, scoring runs, doing everything we need to do to win games.”

Coach Adam Bolling and his staff identified this group’s potential early on. He guided them through a rough couple of seasons to a respectable 2024 finish. Then, it all began to come together this year.

Bolling could tell the pressure hung like a heavy fog on the bus ride on Wednesday. He turned up the music.

The Eagles belted out Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and a rendition of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball.” The nerves transformed into confidence. The Eagles shared jokes and encouragement from their dugout throughout the game. They pulled off bunts, nearly executed a suicide squeeze.

“Our ego wasn’t that big, back then. It was an experiment with these kids,” Bolling said. “If you invest in them, they’ll give it back.”

Everything Northeast did to concoct a win on Wednesday, they did all-out.

“There’s a trust factor to this. It’s not an accident that, if you look around our field, they’re all former shortstops — well except for Saraullo, but he’s a lefty,” Bolling said. “It’s like the Orioles’ methodology: draft all shortstops and convert them into what you need.”

Fielding woes hurt North County in the top of the second as much as hitting aided Northeast. Shriver (4-for-4) lined a single, then Dakota Patton and Michael Kooser reached base thanks to Knight errors. A pair of sacrifice flies was enough to jump ahead 2-0, a lead that lasted until the sixth.

North County did have its chances before then.

Senior Logan O’Neill had a shot at leading a two-out rally with Mason Door on base. Schreiber and Saraullo went for it, but it was the junior pitcher’s out to grab. He grabbed the pop-up and didn’t stop running until he hit the inside of the dugout.

“I always call him Superman. In the hallways, he’s a pretty unassuming guy, but he’s never far from ripping his suit,” Bolling said. “He’s not the biggest guy in the world, but man, does he play.”

“If we had one goal this season, it was to make the county championship. But now?” Saraullo said. “Now, we’re going to states.”

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