Extra innings. Two outs, two strikes. St. Albans up 4-3. And then, almost out of a movie, senior Sam Himmelfarb hit a walk off double in the bottom of the ninth inning over the left fielder’s head, flipping a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 win. The crowd erupted as Wilson won their first DCSAA championship. “After swinging and missing twice, I was a little nervous. But that pitch I hit, I wasn’t really thinking about the gravity of the situation, I was just thinking about doing my job, getting the ball in play,” Himmelfarb said.
The game was not set to be high scoring; the two starting pitchers, Wilson’s Collin Bosley-Smith and St. Albans’ Clark Klitenic are both committed to Duke University and have shutout many teams this season. The pitching matchup lived up to the hype with Klitenic pitching eight innings and 10 strikeouts, and Bosley-Smith pitching five solid innings, giving up only two earned runs.
Himmelfarb hit a single in the fifth inning off Klitenic, putting Wilson up 2-1, after St. Albans had gone up 1-0 on a passed ball in the third inning. Wilson added to their lead again in the fifth, ending the inning up 3-1. St. Albans tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the sixth inning, heading into the last inning of the game. Neither team scored in the eighth inning, putting the game into extras. Wilson left runners in scoring position during both the seventh and eighth innings. In the top of the ninth, after a questionable safe/out call at first base allowed St. Albans to continue hitting, they scored on a bunt. Going into the bottom of the ninth inning, down 4-3, all hope seemed lost for Wilson. Down to their last strike, Sam Himmelfarb took a 1-2 pitch over the left fielder’s head, with sophomores Amartya Eswaran-King and Collin Bosley-Smith scoring on the play. The team was “ecstatic” after the last runner passed home plate, Bosley-Smith recalled.
Bosley-Smith says that “It was a tough game. Very close the whole game. They’d come back, we’d come back.” He adds that the win, “was very momentous.”
Head coach Jimmy Silk is also currently basking in the glow of the victory. “It’s nice to see the work pay off. For me as a coach, I’m super proud of my boys,” he said.
Former players are reconnecting with the team after the historic win. “I’ve received no less than 30 calls and messages from former players,” Silk said, who was quick to emphasize the significance of Wilson being the first public school to win the championship. “We want to be a great representation of public school baseball.” Wilson baseball appears to be on the road to achieving this, as their win catapulted Wilson into the Washington Post Top 10 All-Met Rankings at number nine.
“[The win] was a great way to send our seniors off to college and a win we can build on for next year,” said junior Seth Kahler.
With a lot of talent in the junior, sophomore, and freshman classes, Wilson baseball will have a solid shot at a repeat DCSAA win next year. But for now, they are just revelling in their historic victory.
The win though, “doesn’t change anything as it relates to our goals,” according to coach Jimmy Silk. Collin Bosley-Smith adds that team wants to, “repeat [winning the DCSAA championship] again next year.”