The hidden ball trick has long been one of the most terrifying plays in baseball, even if it hardly ever works. One high school team in Maryland proved this week that it can still be effective when executed to perfection.
The St. Michaels Saints defeated the Pikesville Panthers in a high school state tournament game on Tuesday using the hidden ball trick. St. Michaels entered the seventh and final inning with a 4-0 lead and quickly found themselves leading by one run with two outs and a runner in scoring position.
With a 2-0 count, pitcher Will Sherwood stepped off the mound and appeared to fire a pick-off attempt to second base. Second baseman Brock Grow dove near the runner to make it look like the ball had gotten by and skipped into center field.
The problem for the Panthers is that Sherwood never actually threw the ball. When the runner tried to advance to third, Sherwood chased him down and applied the tag for the final out, which preserved a 4-3 win for St. Michaels.
You can watch the awesome sequence:
🚨Ballgame🚨
— Prep Baseball Maryland (@PrepBaseballMD) May 20, 2025
Absolutely UNREAL ending to the first 1A State Semifinal of the day. @GoSaintMichaels runs a fake pickoff to perfection with the game tying run on second to end Pikesville’s furious 7th in ing rally.
Will Sherwood ends with a complete game for the Saints as they… pic.twitter.com/QBApOA6sGl
The win sent St. Michaels to the MPSSAA Class 1A Finals, where they will play for a state championship.
That is the type of play that St. Michaels obviously worked on in practice. Their head coach, Brian Femi, decided to call for it with the season on the line, and it paid off.
We have seen teams pull off the hidden ball trick in the past, but it is rare to see it in walk-off fashion with so much at stake. That will likely be the highlight of the Saints’ season whether they win the state title or not.
H/T Bro Bible
