By Angela Watts
Assistant GM, Washington D.C. Metro Area
** Click the links to the left to to access hundreds of photos and dozens of video highlights from Monday’s championship game!
Laughter was found in abundance Monday night on the softball field at Lake Braddock.
From South County’s pre-game stories to its post-game picture posing — with a few priceless moments on the field sprinkled in, too — the Stallions seemed to be having a ball throughout their 1-0 victory over Annandale in the Patriot District tournament championship game.
But then, why shouldn’t they?
South County (22-1 overall) entered Monday’s championship game riding a 16-game win streak, and emerged with its third consecutive Patriot District tournament championship.
“Three in a row … I don’t think anyone else could ask for anything more,” senior first baseman Kayla Reisinger said. “We did great. I mean, you can’t do anything else.”
Certainly not on the district level. And while the Stallions as a team made it clear their sights are set on reaching the state tournament this season, there was the business of winning the league tournament title first.
In doing so, South County will enter the upcoming Northern Region tournament as the No. 1 seed from the Patriot District and will host National District No. 4 seed Washington-Lee at 7 p.m. Friday in the opening round.
Annandale (11-10) will advance as the Patriot’s No. 2 seed and will similarly host National District No. 3 seed Mount Vernon at 7 p.m. Friday.
“I’m very proud of how far we’ve come,” said Annandale Coach Tom Grant, whose team came in riding a six-game win streak. “The last few weeks have been a total turnaround. We started the year 0-6 and we were struggling. But then something just clicked.
“We kept telling them they were much better than they were showing on the field … and they dug down deep and started playing the kind of ball we knew they could play.”
But Monday night the Atoms ran into the buzzsaw that it South County junior pitcher Chelsey Dunham. Dunham nearly threw a perfect game, yielding only one hit and one walk while striking out 13 of the 23 batters she faced, including striking out the side in the second inning.
She was sitting batters down so quickly that after just a pair of strikeouts in the top of the fifth inning Dunham started jogging off the field — which ignited the rest of the Stallions’ in laughter all over again.
Annandale sophomore Isabelle Yaroch was impressive as well, striking out six batter while yielding only two hits and one walk. Unfortunately for Yaroch, those hits both came in the first inning.
South County sophomore right fielder Julia Kastner led things off with a infield single and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by junior designated player Sarah Senseney. Stallion junior second baseman Taylor Dillow then promptly belted a double to deep center field to score the game’s only run.
And even one run — with Dunham on the mound — is often enough. Of the Stallions’ 22 victories this season, 16 have been shutouts.
“She’s such a good pitcher,” Grant said of Dunham. “She moves that
ball in-and-out and in-and-out … we just couldn’t get to it. She’s a
very smart pitcher.”
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
Annandale 000 000 0 — 0
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