Walter Johnson Baseball Players Reflect on Winning The School's First Maryland State Championship

Walter Johnson senior Shaun Rudick hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning to clinch the MPSSAA 4A baseball state championship

The Walter Johnson Wildcats celebrate their 2025 MPSSAA baseball state championship. / Larry Hurd

Back on Friday, May 23rd, Walter Johnson High School (Bethesda, Maryland) beat Urbana 7-6 to claim the 2025 MPSSAA 4A baseball state championship. It’s the first baseball state title in the Maryland school’s history, which is ironic considering the school is named after Walter "Big Train" Johnson, a legendary major leaguer with the Washington Senators.

“Obviously it feels pretty amazing,” said Wildcats head coach Steve Sutherland. “We felt like we had the talent to do it last year, and it just wasn’t in the cards. I feel like this was more of a team that was on the same page doing all the right things at the right time. I feel that this was the right group to do it.”

The state championship was sealed when senior Shaun Rudick hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning. This was the fourth walk-off win for WJ this season.

“Walking up to the plate when I knew I had a job to do, I wasn’t trying to do too much,” said Rudick. “I was just trying to stay simple. I got down to two strikes and I knew I had to put the ball in play, especially since the runner had moved on a passed ball.”

It’s a special moment considering Rudick had injured his arm earlier in the season in a game against Blake. “He’s been a guy that when tougher pitchers get on that mound, he shines the most,” said Sutherland. “When you look at what he’s done against Wells [Twining of Whitman] and Amari [Allen of Sherwood] in the past, he was just a sophomore, and I’d throw him into the mix playing an average pitcher too.”

Another big play that happened in the game was junior Ethan Pletter hitting a leadoff inside-the-park home run for the Wildcats to tie the game at 4-4 in the fifth inning.

“I feel like the biggest part was the momentum shift that it had,” said Pletter. “We have a tendency to start slow, but once we pick it up, we get unstoppable, the momentum is on our side. From there, I knew we had a great shot at winning the game.”

“Ethan didn’t get a lot of playing time as a sophomore,” said Sutherland. “But we kept him up, and potential and talent were always there. Did I think he was going to have the season he had at the plate? No. But the potential was always there. What I did expect was how fast he had gotten in between his sophomore and his junior year.”

Since becoming the head coach in 2015, Sutherland has turned WJ’s varsity baseball team into contenders. The Wildcats have won 16+ games each year since 2022, but 2025 is the year the wins really paid off.

“I felt like that COVID year was the midway mark between the first half of my coaching career and second,” said Sutherland. “I felt that it was like that reset button and it just switched. We were roughly a .500 team pre-COVID, and then after COVID it was like guys forgot how we had matched up against rivals.”

Sutherland stated how tough it was to compete against Sherwood before that 2020 COVID year, but since then the Wildcats haven’t lost to the Warriors, having beaten them in the 2023 Montgomery County championship game. Funny enough, Sherwood just won the MPSSAA 3A baseball state title, which is their fourth title in five years.

“I think there was a little bit of inexperience with going into that county championship, which we were so hungry to get a few years ago,” said Sutherland, “because that was the farthest we had gone. We really wanted that game against Sherwood, and then winning that allowed us to be like ‘All right, we want more.’ We wanted that next step, that regional championship.”

Currently a special education teacher at WJ, this was the first year where Sutherland actually taught at the Bethesda school, having previously taught at Churchill and Whitman. “I felt like I got closer to the guys just seeing them at lunch, having them join clubs that I’m in charge of,” said Sutherland. “I’m going to miss this group more than any because of how close I got to them over the summer, the school year, and everywhere else.”

Senior left-handed pitcher Nolan Ross had a remarkable season on the mound, finishing with 47 innings pitched, five earned runs, 82 strikeouts (the most since Amari Allen’s 81 in 2022), a .745 ERA, and a .119 BAA.

“I knew that I was going into the season underrated,” said Ross. “I didn’t make Maryland all-state or anything like that. I just had a chip on my shoulder. I knew that I could just prove everyone wrong and show that I was the best pitcher in Montgomery County, because a lot of other people would say otherwise before the season, but I think I proved them wrong.”

Junior left-handed pitcher Spencer Gilcrest was another highlight this season, as he and Ross proved to be the best southpaw duo in Montgomery County.

“I’ve known Spencer for a while and become great friends,” said Ross. “But we’re also competing on the field as teammates, so it’s just really cool.”

“It’s awesome just being in it with him,” said Gilcrest. “Everyone coming together to be a part of something bigger is awesome.”

“I can’t remember a time when there was a lefty 1 and 2 for any high school,” said Sutherland. “We lost one of the best pitchers Montgomery County has seen in years in Jay Wandell, and a lot of people were like ‘Oh, they’ll take a step back.’ One of the benefits we talked about earlier was that I have coached Nolan and a lot of these other guys in the summer and falls.”

Another player who stepped up for WJ this season was junior Sam Weston, who wound up being second on the team in hits, behind Rudick. “Nobody expected Sam Weston to do anything,” Sutherland said. “He took a big step up.”

WJ’s 2025 baseball team had 10 seniors, as seven of them played travel ball for Coach Sutherland. Alongside Ross and Rudick, the team featured Isaac Szechenyi, Zach Roach, Brady Chan, Connor McGee, Andreas Johnson, Will Karton, Daniel Polott, and Ethan Hsu.

Three of the seniors had committed to playing baseball in college, including Ross (Dickinson), Rudick (Stevenson), and McGee (Endicott).

“I’m just looking forward to providing for another team, because I’ve been with WJ for so long,” said Ross. “But I’m looking forward to meeting new guys, having new teammates, and letting them know that I can be there for them.”

“I’m just excited for the opportunity to play with new teammates who I haven’t played with before,” said Rudick, “being able to show them what I can bring to the table, and who I can be as a player and as a person.”