Just hours before the biggest game of his Little League career, Reston National pitcher Brian Lawson’s dad asked if he wanted to go to the batting cages to try to work out the kinks in his son’s swing.
“I just wasn’t getting a lot of hits or home runs at all,” said Brian Lawson, who had been in a 13-game slump. “So we went to the batting cages to try and figure out what was wrong.”
Brian knew his team would be facing Southwestern Youth Association East’s top pitcher in Tommy Bradley during Wednesday night’s Virginia State Little League title game at Freedom Park in Leesburg.
He also knew Tommy could throw hard, the exact types of pitches that had troubled him all tournament long. So together, the Brian and his dad prepped for what could have been a rough outing.
“My dad cranked the pitches up to 75 miles per hour,” Brian said. “I found that the best way to hit those pitches was to relax.”
Fast forward a few hours to the bottom of the second inning.
Brian’s team trailed SYA East, 5-1, and it appeared the defending state champs were ready to pull away. Brian went up to bat with a man on first and, on the third pitch, he belted a two-run home run to ignite Reston National’s bench.
“I just did what we practiced,” he said. “I was relaxed and as soon as I hit [the home run] I said to myself ‘The slump is gone, I’ve broken free from the chains.’”
Brian’s blast helped Reston National surge to a stunning 14-9 victory over SYA East for the club’s first-ever state Little League title.
The two-run homer wasn’t Brian’s only highlight. In the top of the second inning, he replaced starting pitcher Brendan Grammes after Brendan gave up five runs. Brian worked out of the inning without yielding any more runs.
“I was really disappointed because I thought there was no way we could come back,” Brendan said. “But [Brian] calmed us down and was able to get us back to playing the way we can.”
Then after his homer, the batting order cycled back to Brian; he came through with what would prove to be the deciding play -- a grand slam to go up 10-5.
But Brian wasn’t the only Reston National team member who did pre-game homework.
Reston manager Jeff Grammes said he received some intel on SYA East’s starting pitcher prior to the start of the game.
“We got some info on their starting pitcher and it specifically said he had a tendency to be wild,” he said. “We told our kids that we didn’t know what the strike zone would be like, but you have to picture where you want the strike and if it’s not there, don’t go.”
The move paid off.
Brian’s grand slam was set up after the SYA East pitcher loaded the bases with three straight walks; he was chased from the game after two innings of work.
“We could sense he was getting a bit frustrated with us,” Grammes said.
The strategy almost hurt Reston early in the game. After patiently waiting for the bases to load through walks and preferred pitches, Grammes instructed Zander Bohnslav to play passive with the bases loaded and two outs.
Bohnslav watched as three pitches raced through the strike zone, ending an opportunity to catch SYA earlier in the game.
“Sometimes you go in with a strategy and it backfires occasionally,” Grammes said. “But you live by the sword and die by the sword. We didn’t panic and it paid off for us. We came right back the next inning and planted nine on them.”
Reston grinded out more runs through walks and choice batting to extend their lead despite comeback attempts from SYA East. Late in the top of the fourth inning, relief pitcher Brendon Luke helped SYA rally with a two run RBI to cut the lead to 11-8, but Reston’s Johnny Micka extended the lead to 13-8 by bringing in two runs in the bottom of the inning.
The defeat ends another run of dominant baseball from SYA East.
SYA won the title last season and entered the Virginia state tournament as a favorite to repeat, but the team’s vaunted defense was unable to hold back challenges from Reston.
“The problem was we could never get a hold of them defensively,” SYA East head coach Jamie Brusick said. “We could never stop them, and to their credit, they kept scoring runs. We could never get the big hit on our side either.”
Despite numerous bases loaded opportunities, SYA East was unable to channel the hitting power that always had seemed to arrive for a clutch home run, or even grand slam this season.
“It’s tough because you want certain kids up in that situation, and we couldn’t get them up,” Brusick said. “I trust all my hitters, but you want certain kids that [Reston] can’t pitch around. That didn’t happen.”
This is the first Little League title of any kind for a Reston-based team in 13 years. The last team to win was a combination team of Reston and Herndon.
Reston National now advances to the Southeastern Regional Little League Tournament in Warner Robins, Ga., which begins on Aug. 5. The teams Reston will face are yet to be determined, but for now, Grammes and his team are enjoying the euphoria of making a state title run.
“It still hasn’t hit me that this happened,” he said. “We beat a lot of tough teams; including a team [Bridgewater] that many felt was one of the favorite to win this tournament.”
ralbers@fairfaxtimes.com
