Meridian baseball managed to sneak into the playoffs in their final few games of the regular season, and on Tuesday, May 19th, capped their miraculous comeback off with a gritty 2-0 win over Warren County.

The contest was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning, when sophomore Chris Capannola hit an RBI single to allow Meridian to score the first run of the game. He also managed to score a crucial insurance run later in the inning, bringing the final score to 2-0. 

“[It was a] big hit. We needed it, and I think we only had one hit before that, so we had two hits all night,” head coach Adam Amerine said.

As always, the Mustangs’ defense excelled. With the recent return of star junior pitcher Luke Greiner, the team’s defense has found another gear. That defense was essential to Meridian’s victory, with Greiner at the forefront. He notched nine strikeouts and nearly threw a perfect game, only giving up one hit throughout the entire seven innings of play.

“[Greiner’s performance] was huge, he’s been great all year. We’re super happy he’s back, and he only threw 77 pitches tonight, very efficient,” coach Amerine commented.

This Mustang team has had their fair share of ups and downs, but the squad came alive in the latter half of the season, with multiple massive wins over strong programs, like their 7-1 victory over Brentsville a week ago, one of the best programs in the region. A big reason for this turnaround is their team composition. The Mustangs have a decent amount of experienced seniors, but also a large amount of younger talent that improved drastically as the season progressed. Those young players had a big role in this win.

“It makes me feel good for the future. Capannola is only a sophomore, [Chris] Thompson is a sophomore, so the young guys are really good contributors,” coach Amerine said.

With this win, the Mustangs have officially solidified their playoff spot, and will learn shortly which team they will face in the first round.