Chesapeake softball’s bats outweigh defensive struggles to beat Dulaney, 11-7, in 3A state quarterfinal
Not all of Chesapeake’s victories can be pretty, and Monday’s Class 3A state quarterfinal triumph over Dulaney certainly won’t be hung in a museum.
But coach Brittany Owen said afterward that she doesn’t expect them all to be.
The Cougars countered their defensive issues with flaming-hot offense, including four- and six-run innings to quash the Lions, 11-7. Every Cougar in the lineup contributed at least one of the team’s 16 hits, most of which were singles.
“We’re not perfect. We make mistakes and we pick each other up,” Owen said. “They refocused, locked in, came out with our bats and they show what they’re made of.”
Chesapeake, which is two wins away from its ninth state title, has 24 hours to celebrate before facing seven-time state champion Sherwood in the 3A state semifinals on Bachman Sports Complex’s field at 7 p.m. — little time to iron out Monday’s wrinkles.
But when Chesapeake stumbled in moments, they saw their past successes — and the way they responded to failure. An eight-run loss to Crofton on May 3 motivated them to blank Northeast in the region final. As foreign as the Baltimore County power was, the Cougars already knew how to erase a bad day.
“Go home, enjoy it, think about what happened today, and let’s work on it. Come out ready to play,” Owen said. “They can do it. They’re a great team that plays as a team, produces and has fun.”
A litany of mistakes left Chesapeake trailing Dulaney, 6-5, and counting down the outs left in its season. But then the fifth inning happened.
Rylee Hyde attacked Dulaney pitcher Lilly Tinker’s first pitch for a single, cutting down a defensive wall the Lions had managed to uphold up to that point. There seemed to be nothing, then, that Dulaney could do to stop what was unfolding.
Alana Watts chomped her first pitch too, just for Ava Cicchetti to follow up by plating Hyde. A parade of Cougars came to the plate, and created a parade of Cougars crossing home. Kasey Slade, Ryleigh Smoot, Lexi Laumann and Allison Schaefer all sent happy blurs of white and blue across home plate.
“We all want to do it for the seniors. We all love them. That’s why we did it,” Laumann said.
The dugout was full of fun from then until the time it spilled on to the field for postgame celebration. But that wasn’t always the case.
Bad enough Dulaney pinned three runs in the first inning — the product of a hit batter and three hits, all on two outs. After Chesapeake only managed a run in response, the Lions doubled down with another single that, had the fielding gone smoothly, might not have yielded the fourth Lions run — but it did.
“We did get a little iffy once [Dulaney] started to hit, but once Coach B said ‘Lock in, let’s go,’ we just put our bats to work,” Laumann, who had two hits and two RBIs, said.
Five-straight hits, sparked by Slade’s second-pitch double, tied the Lions at 4 before the Cougars found a Dulaney mistake to take advantage of: Schaefer sprinting home on an errant throw from the pitcher’s mound to the outfield.
The four-run, second-inning burst still didn’t heal Chesapeake’s defensive wounds. The Cougars relinquished another run in the fourth on an error, and a homer in the fifth for Dulaney to lead, 6-5. Chesapeake’s hitters looked at one another and knew they had to end the cycle there.
By the time Schaefer — the ninth hitter of the fifth inning — drove one to the center field wall, chasing in the 11th Chesapeake run, they knew they had.
“We all knew it wasn’t gonna be an easy win, but we knew we could do it,” Laumann said.
Dulaney — 310 110 1 — 7 10 2
Chesapeake — 140 060 X — 11 16 2
WP: CH — Cavey; LP: DU — Tinker
2B: CH — Slade 2; DU — Townsend, Desi, Renoldo; HR: DU — Desi