With the final point of the fifth annual Baltimore-Washington Junior Team Match on the line at Columbia Country Club’s 18th green, Eric Hall converted a two-putt par, enabling him and partner Michael Jones to preserve a 1-up margin for the back nine and lift Washington to a 7-to-5 victory in the closest match of the series.

Hall, 17, from Harwood, and a Severn School senior with a 4.2 grade point average, had three birdies in the first five holes and the side won the ninth to get the front-nine point against Baltimore’s Rij Patel-Will Koras. On the back, Hall had two more birdies, paving the way for him and Jones, 17, a Georgetown Prep senior, to clinch the match at the 17th and setting the stage for the dramatic finish.

The 3-0 triumph was the event’s only sweep.

Leading off, Baltimore’s Teagan Stephenson-Bobby Mulreaney won the front and the match in beating Luke Schaap-Tyler Koch, 2-1; Washington’s Davis Lamb-Bennett Buch halved the front and won the back and the match for a 2 1/2 – 1/2 triumph over Ben Morris-Ian Simon, and Baltimore’s Chris Navarro-Peter Knade duplicated that effort, halving the front nine and winning the back and the match, 2 1/2 – 1/2, from Feldman-Micholas.

Highlights included Stephenson-Mulreaney winning three holes in the middle of the front nine and taking the side (and set up the match win), 4 up; Lamb, 18, a Georgetown Prep senior, had three birdies, including a highlight-reel downhill 50-foot putt from the back of the fourth green and one at the 433-yard 10th where he hit his second shot to four feet. Morris, 18, a St. Paul’s School senior, matched Lamb with bookend-birdies at Nos. 1 and 9, but his side could not keep up on the back nine and Buch helped the DC pairing with a birdie at the 12th, and Knade, 17, a Woodberry Forest School senior from Easton, birdied 12, 13, and 16 to help put away Feldman-Micholas. At 16, Koras, from Lutherville, and a Loyola Blakefield sophomore, was the youngest player in the competition.

Maryland State officers Sandy Martin (Baltimore) and Paul Dillon (Washington) served as team captains of their respective squads.

Reported By: John Stewart