By James A. McCray III
DigitalSports, Content Manager

There are two words that stand above all else in the sports of softball and baseball -- perfect game.

Those two words stand for excellence and as McDonough Rams senior pitcher Melanie Mitchell fiercely ran out onto her home field for the final inning Wednesday afternoon against the Thomas Stone Cougars, Mitchell was three outs away from just that, excellence.

Mitchell proceeded to strike out two of the game's final three batters --two of her total 16-- to achieve a perfect game and helped the Rams secure a 9-0 victory.

"It feels really good," Mitchell said of the win. "Last year we lost to them in a pretty close game. ... We had to come out and redeem ourselves. And, to beat a top team in SMAC, it feels pretty good. We just have to keep it going."

Under the guidance of head coach Julie Snavely, Mitchell and the Rams improved to 7-0 on the year, while Thomas Stone dropped its first game of the year and now sits at 7-1.

On her pitcher's strong performance, Snavely added: "It is great. I feel like she is just in the zone. She goes out and works hard, and she is at peak performance already only seven games into the season."

With both teams coming into the game undefeated, Mitchell believes the win was a huge one for her and her teammates.

"I would say definitely, yes," Mitchell said. "I mean, this was our first major milestone beating someone who was undefeated as well, who has played some really good ball, [has] some good defense and good pitching."

As Mitchell performed well in the circle, the Rams' batting order scored seven runs in the second inning to give their pitcher plenty of cushion.

McDonough freshman Kelsea Morris hit the first of the team's three consecutive RBI singles in the second frame that propelled McDonough to a 3-0 lead.

With the bases loaded in the same inning, Sam Kruemmel knocked a ball into center field that got just underneath the center fielder's glove and thus cleared the bases extending the lead to six.

Another Stone error allowed the seventh run to cross the plate for McDonough.

"We just went out there and worked hard and got our offense going," Morris said. " ... After I hit the run in everybody starting hitting, and more runs were coming in."

And as far as what has played the biggest role for the Rams thus far, Morris added: "Melanie pitching."

"It is totally awesome, when a freshman comes through," Snavely added. "We have three in the lineup towards the bottom of the order, so it is really exciting when you see them comes through because it can only build their confidence."

Morris would also add a RBI in the fourth inning for the eighth run and teammate Janice Spearbeck knocked in the ninth run of the game directly after.

Stone committed an uncharacteristic eight errors in the loss, including four in the second inning, much to the dismay of head coach Dave Reilly. 

"We didn't play the way that we are capable of," Reilly admitted. "We gave them five outs in the first inning, because of two errors, and then we just started falling apart. We only had 14 errors this entire season coming into this game.

" ... We have been hitting the ball very well and today we didn't. But, we have not gone up against a pitcher the caliber of a Melanie Mitchell, either. I really thought going into the game it would be 3-1, 3-2, something like that. ... I didn't expect this, or us to have as many errors as we did."

Sophomore pitcher Kelci Therres started in the circle for the Cougars and had a decent showing in the losing effort.

And as many Charles County high-school students are currently enjoying the two words of spring break, Mitchell enjoyed a much better two, perfect game.

E-mail: James A. McCray III

McDonough 9, Thomas Stone 0

Thomas Stone  --   0 0 0   0 0 0   0  -- 0 0 8
McDonough     --    0 7 0   0 2 0   x  -- 9 12 0
WP: Mitchell   LP: Therres