In the Class 2A North Regional softball championship game 5-3 victory over Eastern Tech last Friday, Lansdowne High School had the perfect combination of pitching, hitting and fielding.
The victory ended Eastern Tech's 43-game winning streak and advanced Lansdowne to the state semifinals opposite Easton. However, the Vikings couldn't duplicate that effort on Tuesday.
Instead, Easton exploded for seven runs in the top of the fifth inning and turned a 4-1 lead into an 11-1 five-inning victory at Bachman Park in Glen Burnie.
"I just think the stage was so big, maybe we just got stung a little bit," Lansdowne first-year coach Ken Goodman said.
Sydney Chance (4-for-4, four RBIs, three runs) and Savannah Miles (2-for-4, three RBIs) led the offense for the Warriors (19-4).
Miles, who came into the game with 144 strikeouts in 82 innings and a 1.77 earned run average, was the winning pitcher with nine strikeouts and only one walk allowed.
Lansdowne juniors Emily Wilkens and Hannah Goodman had the only hits for the Vikings (13-7).
Wilkens came around to score Lansdowne's only run on a wild pitch and overthrow, which made it 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth.
Wilkens legged out an infield hit for the first safety and was thrilled to get the Vikings on the scoreboard.
"It was just amazing, like every emotion was all at once when I was safe at first," Wilkens said. "I basically threw a party on first base. I was so happy and then Hannah got a really good hit and that was pretty good."
But, in the top of the fifth, Easton got nine hits and seven runs off freshman starter Jordyn Goodman.
Goodman had blanked the Warriors in the second and third innings after they had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI single from Miles.
But a two-hit bloop double by Chance that landed on the infield dirt keyed a three-run fourth for the Warriors, who led 4-0 before the Vikings got on board.
"We were a little slow off the jump, but we did score in the first inning which is huge for us," Easton coach Jen Powell said. "We took a little lull time and came back out and started doing our job with the bats."
And once the bats heated up, so did Miles on the mound.
"Usually, if we are hitting she just settles in and if we are not she just steps it up a notch and takes over herself sometimes," Powell said.
Wilkens was disappointed in the loss but not the season for Lansdowne.
"We went from a team last year where we were done in the second game [of regionals]," Wilkens said. "This year, we just gave it our all. Every single thing that we could do was on that field."
Coach Goodman also likes what he sees from a team that loses three senior starters, Alex Bloom, Rikki Brown and Christina Horn.
"This is going to help them in the future greatly because now they won't be satisfied until they get back here," Goodman said. "This is our even spot. We've got to go up from here."