Jul 27, 2025 By Rob Burchianti 7 min read

No. 15 may have been the most impressive of all.

Carmichaels had won 14 previous Fayette County Baseball League championships in a variety of series, but perhaps none was more superb than the baseball clinic the Copperheads put on in a three-game sweep of top-seeded Potomac Valley in this year’s final.

Gianni Cantini delivered a third consecutive stellar start on the mound, Tyler Richmond went 3 for 3 and Santino Marra smacked a pair doubles and drove in two runs as Carmichaels put away the top-seeded Mudcats, 7-2, in Game 3 at Garrett College on Friday to sweep the best-of-5 finals, 3-0.

“It never gets old,” said Copperheads manager Dickie Krause who has been with the team he helped create for 40 years. “This is our first title since 2019. That five-year drought was the longest we’ve had since our first championship in 1996.”

Cantini took a perfect game into the seventh inning before faltering and allowing two runs, the first of the series for Potomac Valley, and wound up with a three-hitter. He walked just one and struck out nine.

“That kid was so intense,” Krause said. “It was awesome to see. He brought a level of intensity on that mound that they couldn’t match.”

It was the third straight complete-game performance by the Copperheads, who amazing held Potomac Valley scoreless through the first 20 innings of the series. Gavin Pratt threw a two-hit shutout in an 8-0 win in Game 1 and Matt Bamford followed that up with a three-hit shutout in a tense 2-0 win in Game 2.

“We felt strong going in about our pitching but nobody goes into a series with them expecting to shut them out, especially with the players they have,” Krause said. “I mean what can you say about our pitching? It was just outstanding.”

Carmichaels outscored the Mudcats 17-2 in the series, out-hit them 24-8, and did not commit an error. The Copperheads also stole eight bases, laid down a pair of bunt singles and hit three sacrifice flies in executing in all phases of the game.

What made the series result even more stunning was that Potomac Valley held a slight upperhand between the two during the regular season, winning two of three from the Copperheads, 3-2 and 9-2, while losing once, 4-3.

“We played them three times, split two close games then had one that got away from us down in Cumberland where we just played poorly,” Krause said.

The Game 3 victory wasn’t quite as easy as the final score indicated. Potomac Valley sent Noah Broadwater to the hill and he held Carmichaels off the scoreboard through the first five innings.

The Copperheads finally managed to push a run across in the top of the sixth.

Hunter Mamie struck out leading off but the ball eluded Mudcats catcher Logan Rotruck and Mamie reached first on what was ruled a wild pitch. Richmond followed with an infield single and after a force out at third Dom Obiecunas singled to right to load the bases.

That brought Marra to the plate who was hit with the first pitch to bring home the first run of the game.

Krause saw the play as a negative, however, with Marra’s potent bat taken out of his hands.

“When that happened our dugout exploded,” Krause said. “But I was thinking I wanted this kid to hit, I was kind of frustrated.”

Finally given a lead, Cantini mowed down the Mudcats on two strikeouts and a fly out in the bottom of the inning and the Copperheads stepped to the plate again and put the game away.

Broadwater walked Andino Vecchiolla and Pratt to start the inning. After a strikeout, Krause called on AJ Vanata to bat for Mamie. The Mapletown graduate came through with a two-run double to center field that wound up being the winning runs of the game.

“That was a huge hit to give us a 3-0 lead,” Krause said. “AJ didn’t play the first two games and I thought this is finally the spot for him. You’ve got a guy sitting on the bench who has great power and is a really good hitter. He steps up there, and on an 0-2 count, and hits a rocket to score those two runs. He really delivered for us.”

The Copperheads kept adding on from there.

Richmond followed with an RBI single, stole second and took third on Rotruck’s throwing error. After Dom Colarusso walked, Connor Blake relieved Broadwater. Colarusso stole second and Obiecunas reached on an outfield error to make it 5-0. Marra followed with a run-scoring double to right and, after Noah Mildren was hit by a pitch, Luke Camden capped the rally with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-0.

“It was nice to give Gianni some breathing room,” Krause said. “We just kept putting pressure on them, trying to squeeze out as many runs as we could.”

Richmond’s big game didn’t surprise Krause.

“The night before, we won 2-0 and didn’t hit the ball well at all,” Krause said. “It was a fast-moving game, still plenty of daylight left, so I told the guys the cage was open. To their credit about half dozen of them stayed and hit. He was one of them. Tyler was hitting in that cage until it was almost dark. He took at least 50 swings.

“And look how that paid off.”

Potomac Valley did finally crack the scoreboard for the first time in the series in its final at bat, spoiling Cantini’s bid for a perfect game in the process.

After getting Broadwater to ground out to Mildren, Landon McAlpine stroked a double to center for the Mudcats’ first hit of the game and first extra-base hit of the series.

Cantini then allowed a walk to JJ Charlton, a bloop single to Rotruck to load the bases and a run-scoring infield hit to Blake, prompting Krause to make a mound visit.

“He wasn’t up in his pitch count,” Krause said. “I think that long rally in the seventh inning messed up his perfect game because he had to wait so long to get back out there.

“When they scored a run and still had the bases loaded I walked out and said, ‘Hey, I know you’re really disappointed but right now this is about winning the championship. Let’s lock in now, get these guys out and get out of here.”

Cantini got Bryce Snyder on a sacrifice fly that made it 7-2 and Tyson Shumaker on a series-ending fly out to center fielder Pratt, and the celebration for league title No. 15 was on.

“We stopped to eat afterwards and I told them you guys are special and not just because we won the championship,” Krause said. “I said I could do anything I wanted with moves and nobody ever said a word, complained or copped an attitude.

“That allowed us to do a lot of different things. Everybody had roles and accepted them. They were just great guys, I can’t say enough about them. It was a joy to be around guys who were all about the team. They were really tight and cared about each other. And they played really hard.

“I took an individual picture with every kid on my team afterwards of us holding the trophy at home plate. I’ll treasure that forever.”

Carmichaels came close to claiming its 15th crown the previous two years, falling to M&R Transit, which didn’t field a team in 2025, in the 2023 (four games) and 2024 (five games) finals.

“They were just a great team and very deserving champions,” Krause said. “The one key thing about our team this year was great depth. We had the deepest team in the league by far. We had 18 for this game.

“We could make moves. We could pinch hit, pinch run. Most games we had three pitchers lined up, a starter, a middle reliever and a closer. Don’t forget we had Andino Vecchiolla over there and he only threw one inning in the playoffs.

“We’re going to hope to have a good team again next year. I think a lot of guys will be back.”