Catonsville reclaims state softball crown
BALTIMORE – The Skipjacks' second chance at a state softball crown ended pretty much like the first.
CCBC-Catonsville defeated Chesapeake College, 10-2, Friday afternoon to clinch the Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference title in the replay of a game originally played on Monday. Catonsville defeated the Skipjacks, 12-8, in Monday's contest to seemingly complete a doubleheader sweep, but the Skipjacks' successful protest of a first-inning umpire's ruling gave Chesapeake another shot at the championship.
With play picked up from the point of the protest, Chesapeake started Friday's action with a 2-0 lead batting in the top of the second. Catonsville, however, nailed down the title as pitching ace Sammi O'Connor allowed one hit in four innings and the Cardinals' offense exploded for nine runs in the fourth and fifth innings to invoke the slaughter rule.
"That's what our girls do sometimes," said Catonsville head coach Chuck Slater, whose team had 10 of its 12 hits in the final two frames. "Once they get started it's hard to stop them."
"It sure happened fast," remarked Chesapeake head coach Durrie Hayes. "The trick is always stringing them (hits) together and they did."
Slater indicated his squad was unruffled by having to go back and reclaim a state title they thought they had already won.
"As a team we try to just go out and play the game like it's supposed to be played and not worry about anything else," said Slater, whose team improved to 31-9 overall and 18-0 in the conference.
The bottom third of Catonsville's batting order – Hunter Long, Brittany Kinnear, and Sera Stull - combined for half of Catonsville's 12 hits and six of the Cardinals' 10 runs. That was more than enough run support for O'Connor, who struck out six and walked one.
"Sammi's got 21 shutouts, 250-some strikeouts, a perfect game and two no-hitters this season," said Slater, who brought O'Connor in at the start of action Friday in relief of Monday's starter, Samantha Lang. "You just dream about getting a pitcher like that."
"We struggled against her," said Hayes, whose team fell to 29-5, 18-2. "We looked bad – real bad – in a lot of at bats. We've just got to work on how we handle that type of pitching."
Hayes also made a pitching change to start play Friday, sending in Chesapeake ace Kellieanne Tyner for Monday starter Stephanie Weyermiller. Tyner retired the first four hitters before the Cardinals used three hits and Erin Pronobis' sacrifice fly to pull within 2-1 in the third.
Eleni Wright started Catonsville's game-turning, six-run fourth with a leadoff single and moved to second on a walk to Kyrstin Elliott. After Long's one-out bunt single loaded the bases, Tyner walked Kinnear (three runs) on a 3-2 pitch to force in Wright with the tying run.
Stull (two hits, run, RBI) then singled off Tyner's glove to plate Elliott. Long (two hits, two runs) also scored on the play on Chesapeake shortstop Taryn Zietlow's errant throw to first trying to retire Stull after the ball bounded off Tyner's glove to make it 4-2.
Pronobis (two RBI) and Mercedes Hernandez (two hits) followed with RBI hits, and Lang (two hits, two RBI) rocketed a run-scoring double off the center-field fence to cap the explosion.
O'Connor, batting for the first time, singled in a pair of fifth-inning runs off Weyermiller, who came back in to replace Tyner. O'Connor then scored on Lang's single off the third-base bag to end the game.
Tyner (13-2) allowed eight hits and two walks with two strikeouts in three innings. Weyermiller walked two and struck out one while yielding four hits in two innings over two days.
Chesapeake finished the game with four hits, but three of those came in the inning that was officially played on Monday. Aly Jones had the only hit Friday, a fifth-inning single to right.
"They outplayed us in every aspect of the game," said Hayes. "They hit better, they fielded better and they certainly pitched better – today."
Both Slater and Hayes talked about an anticipated meeting in next weekend's NJCAA Division II Region XX tournament at Chesapeake, which serves as a qualifier for the Division II World Series.
"You would think we might run into each other in the region," said Hayes. "It's happened before that we haven't, but there's a good chance of it."