MANCHESTER — Manchester Valley junior infielder Kassidy Johnson said hitting is contagious.
Stringing hits together has been a key factor in the Mavericks’ success this season, and it was on display once again Monday against visiting Westminster. The Carroll County Athletic League champions defeated the Owls 8-3 to win their sixth straight game and remain undefeated in county play.
“It’s very exciting, for me specifically, because I’ve been on this team for three years and we’ve always had the ability to compete but this is really big because this is a big year for us,” Johnson said. “I think we can go really far with the team we have now and winning counties is just the one stepping stone we need to go all the way.”
Johnson went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Jacquelyn Gouge went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs for the Mavs (12-3, 11-0 county). Senior pitcher Stephanie Barksdale, who totaled 10 strikeouts in the win, hit a two-run homer for the Mavs in the sixth inning.
The Mavericks captured their first county championship since 2016 when they defeated South Carroll 13-2 on April 24, and Mavs coach Mike Hernandez gave credit to his “special group” of athletes.
“This is a group where you can’t go around one or two of my players because the whole lineup is really strong,” Hernandez said. “We don’t give a lot of runs up for free; people have to earn things against us because we know we’re going to put runs on the other teams.”
The Owls got on the board early, thanks to an RBI double from sophomore pitcher Laura Tipton, and both teams worked quickly over the next few innings. Gouge’s homer to left in the fourth brought Johnson in to score and the Mavs took a 2-1 lead.
MV had two runners on base when Johnson hit an RBI single that put the Mavs up 3-2 in the fifth. But Owls junior Sophia Griffith doubled to drive in Lexi Smith in the sixth, and Tipton’s RBI single scored Griffith to tie the game at 3-3.
Barksdale’s two-run homer in the sixth keyed the Mavs’ five-run inning, and they pulled away for the victory.
Johnson said attacking the outside pitches was crucial when going up against Tipton, who struck out 10 batters for the Owls (10-6, 7-5).
“I had a feeling they would throw Laura again so we told the team where she pitched us last time, where we’re batting to and we can’t give them free runs because we know they can hit,” Johnson said. “They have big bats in their lineup so we can’t give them anything for free, like Coach Mike said.”
Sophomore pitcher Laura Tipton went 2-for-2 with two RBIs and Smith went 2-for-4. The Owls registered five hits against the Mavs. Hernandez said the team’s discussions consist largely of patience, playing strong, good pitching and basic fundamentals. The team has been buying in and looking out for one another, another large contribution to their success this year.
Man Valley has made two trips to the state tournament (2014, 2015) and came away with state championship victories both times.
“I think we’re all excited, it was a total team effort,” Gouge said. “We just have to keep it going for playoffs.”
Westminster 1000 002 0 — 3 5 2
Manchester Valley 000 215 x — 8 7 2
W-Laura Tipton and Carly Brooks; MV-Stephanie Barksdale and Shelby Davis. 2B: W-Sophia Griffith, Laura Tipton; MV-Shelby Davis 2. 3B: MV-Taylor Knatz. HR: MV-Gouge. WP: Barksdale. LP: Tipton.