SP Softball Tops Glen Burnie In Extras, 5-4

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Story And Photos By Colin A.J. Murphy

A win over Glen Burnie had been a long time coming for Paige Briganti, Clare Hofstedt, and the senior members of the Severna Park softball team, a fact the Falcons were well aware of heading into the teams’ meeting at Bachman Sports Complex on April 19.

“[The past three] years, we’ve lost to them every year, and it hasn’t even been close,” said Hofstedt.

That all changed on April 19, as the Falcons twice battled back from deficits, made a string of clutch plays down the stretch, and exorcised their Gopher demons in a thrilling, 5-4, extra-inning victory. Briganti came up with a rally-sparking double in the seventh to help the Falcons tie the game and laid down an RBI suicide squeeze bunt in the ninth to give the Falcons the lead, while Hofstedt pitched a complete game and had 10 strikeouts in the nine-inning victory. As of April 29, the Falcons are 13-3 overall and sit atop the standings with a 10-2 county record, having lost only to Broadneck and Chesapeake.

“It’s just so satisfying,” said Briganti following the win over Glen Burnie. “We showed a lot of maturity today, coming back from two deficits and still hanging in together and working together to get runs.”

No surprise the Falcons had to bring their “A” game and demonstrate resilience in order to knock off the Gophers, who remain one of the best teams in the county and had ace pitcher Alli Moos toeing the rubber against Severna Park. Consecutive doubles by Glen Burnie’s Melanie Slowinski and Jessica Robinson in the bottom of the first gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead, and Severna Park put only one runner on base through the game’s first two innings.

“Early on we weren’t getting our bunts down and the short game wasn’t working for us,” said Severna Park Head Coach Meredith McCalister. “We popped up three bunts early on. But we hit the ball well. They hit the ball well too, going back and forth.”

The Falcon bats came alive in the third, when Hofstedt belted a one-out single, advanced to third on a single by Carly Moore, and came around to score on a single by Emma Yale, tying the game at 1-1.

In the fourth, Severna Park’s Kayley Tessieri singled with one out, and after Gracie Logan walked, Tessieri came around to score on a double by Hofstedt. Logan plated on a passed ball, and the Falcons went ahead 3-1.

As one would expect, the Gophers wouldn’t go quietly, and they mounted a comeback in the bottom of the fifth. A Severna Park error and a single by Moos gave Glen Burnie runners at the corners. After a walk to Slowinski, Robinson cleared the bases with a two-out triple to put Glen Burnie ahead, 4-3.

The Falcons couldn’t manufacture a run in the sixth, and they entered the seventh trailing by a run, down to their final three outs, and facing a fourth loss in four years to the Gophers. That’s when Briganti made the first of three huge plays that ultimately led to a thrilling finish and a Falcons win. The senior center fielder led off the inning by smacking a line-drive double to left center, giving Severna Park a runner in scoring position with nobody out. After a groundout by Moore, Yale came through in the clutch, ripping a hard grounder through the left side of the infield—her second RBI of the game—to score Briganti and tie the game at 4-4.

Glen Burnie got out of the inning without further damage and looked to walk-off with a win in the bottom of the seventh, but Hofstedt got a strikeout and two groundouts to send the game to extras. After a scoreless top of the eighth for the Falcons, Glen Burnie again threatened to end the game in the bottom of the eighth. By international tie-break (ITB) rules, extra innings begin with a runner on second base, and Robinson thought she ended the game when she belted a moon shot deep into the gap in left center. Already playing deep, Briganti made a great break backwards on the ball and a spectacular, over-the-shoulder running catch just as she and left fielder Claire Hanratty collided. The Glen Burnie runner tagged up from second and made it all the way home, sending the Gopher bench into mad celebration at what they believed was a walk-off sac-fly. But Glen Burnie’s runner had left second base early, and Briganti got the ball in to Logan, who pulled the plug on the Gopher celebration by stepping on second for a double play.

“[Robinson] had been hitting the lights out of the ball the whole day,” said Briganti. “Claire [Hanratty] and I talked and said we were going to play her really far back into the hole, gamble a little bit because we would still have to get that out at home. I ran it down, I got it in as quick as I could, and then the first thing I did was run over to Claire to see if she was okay, because I thought the game was over.”

After the wildly exciting double play, Hofstedt got the final out on a strikeout two batters later to send the game to the ninth inning.

Logan was the ITB runner in the ninth for Severna Park, and Hofstedt led off the inning by pushing her to third with a bunt. Again coming through in the clutch, Briganti laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to score Logan and give the Falcons a 5-4 lead. Glen Burnie got out of the inning without any further damage, but they needed at least one run in the bottom of the ninth to keep the game going.

Unfortunately for them, Hofstedt slammed the door shut, getting the first out on a grounder and striking out the final two batters—her ninth and tenth of the contest—to seal the victory.

“I was so pumped up, I wanted it so badly,” said Hofstedt, whose velocity seemed only to increase as the game went on. “Four years, we’ve lost to them every year, I wasn’t going to let them stop me today. It was a team effort today. Everyone played great.”

McCalister was proud of her girls’ output in all facets of the game. “We played defense extremely well today, which was nice to see,” said McCalister. “Later in the game when you go to ITB you get into the short game and you learn how to score runs, and we brought it together when we needed to.

“They played a hell of a game,” McCalister concluded with a smile.

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