James Madison Walks Off with State Baseball Championship

James Madison High School’s Matt Favero and Pete Nielsen were bred from Vienna’s local baseball community at a young age.

Favero and Nielsen (who are cousins) began their blossoming baseball careers at the age of 4 when they joined the Vienna Reds tee-ball team together, according to a profile in the Washington Post. Nearly 15 years later, the two boys, now all grown up, have brought a state baseball title back to the Vienna community for the first time since 2002.

Favero and Nielsen combined to pitch all seven innings of last weekend’s Virginia 6A state title game against Chantilly High School, and Favero’s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the seventh and final inning clinched the Warhawks’ first state baseball title in 13 years, about the length of Favero and Nielsen’s baseball careers to this point.

Madison won the game 6-5, overcoming a late 5-3 deficit to rally for a championship victory.

“So many guys contributed, so many guys stayed tough,” Madison coach Mark ‘Pudge’ Gjormand said. “This was a real team effort. It says a lot about this team’s mental fortitude.”

Per the Post, the Warhawks scored the first three runs of the game in the second inning, but relinquished that lead by allowing five unanswered runs over the next three innings. Favero, Madison’s starting pitcher, was chased from the mound with two outs in the fifth inning and Chantilly threatening for more.

But according to the Post, Nielsen calmly took the mound and recorded the game’s final seven outs, holding Chantilly without a run as Madison scratched and clawed its way back into contention.

The Warhawks scored one run in each of the game’s final three innings as Nielsen dominated on the mound, culminating with Favero’s heroic base hit to close the season and clinch the title. A single and a pair of bunt base hits loaded the bases for Favero, who merely needed a sacrifice fly to clinch victory but instead smacked a one-hopper to the centerfield fence to win with emphasis.

“It’s not easy,” Gjormand said of winning a state championship. “There’s a reason not many coaches have had that opportunity. ... I’m proud of these guys, they overcame a lot of adversity.”

Chantilly closed its season as the 6A runner-up for the second year in a row.

Madison, meanwhile, will now begin preparing to defend its state championship next spring. According to their coach, the Warhawks will continue playing ball throughout the summer, and will return to the weight room when school begins again in September.

And according to Gjormand, keeping his team hungry after winning Virginia’s grand baseball prize is the least of his concerns.

“It won’t be the same team. It’ll be a new year. These guys have a great attitude. We don’t look in the rearview mirror, we only look forward. In September we’ll start grinding and the goals will be the same and the expectations will be the same.”