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- Article and photo by Ben Boehl -
It was a humid afternoon on Monday at Dundalk High School and Dundalk's
bats started out hot against the Chesapeake Softball team. It looked
like it was going to be a long afternoon for the Lady Bayhawks as the
Owls jumped out to an early 9-0 lead. Brittany Dowell was on the mound
for Dundalk and she was able to shut down the Chesapeake offense in the
early stages of the game. Whitney Nixon walked and scored a run in the
first inning for Dundalk, but the damage came in the bottom of the
second when the Owls scored four runs in the inning. Dowell and Ashley
Shortt both got hits and scored runs. The Bayhawks had an opportunity
to get out of the inning with a pop up to the pitcher, but Chesapeake's
catcher tripped over the base runner and was called for runner
inference. This kept the inning alive and two more runs scored as the
Bayhawks kept committing key errors in the game. Chesapeake's coach
Shane Zuromski was frustrated by the poor play of his defense.
"This was the worst game I had ever coached," Zuromski said.
The poor defense hurt the Bayhawks in the third inning too and the Owls
added three more runs with RBIs from Shortt, Nixon and Sherell Bennet.
With a 9-0 lead, Dundalk appeared to have the game wrapped up, but
Chesapeake made a comeback.
"I guess we got a little too excited after that," Dowell said after the
game.
In the top of the fifth, Chesapeake's Holly Denko got a hit and Keirsta
Newman was hit by a pitch. Then both runners were brought home by a
two-out hit from Sierra Hunter to cut the lead to 9-2. Newman believes
the offense started to get going after the Chesapeake hitters became
patient.
"We told everyone to take their time and to look for their pitch,"
Newman said. Chesapeake pitcher Chelsea Linkowich kept Dundalk off of
the scoreboard for the rest of the game. Shortt led off the inning with
a walk. Then Kayla Hylock hit a hard line drive right back to Linkowich
and she threw back to first for a double play.
Dundalk and Dowell appeared to be cruising along. They had two outs in
the final inning, but Chesapeake started a rally. Stephanie Paradise
and Hunter reached base and both scored to cut it to 9-4. Natalie
Elarado got a hit and later scored to make it a 9-5 game.
"I started to get anxious when they kept scoring runs,"Dowell said.
But with two runners on base, Dowell got the final batter to ground
out. Dundalk held on for the 9-5 win.
Zuromski was upset with his team's play after the game, even though
they made a late rally.
"I don't know if we can beat anybody after the way we played," he
said.
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