For four innings of Friday night's Maryland Class 3A state championship softball game, it looked as if the C. Milton Wright softball team may have found a way to beat Northern of Calvert.
The Mustangs, who scored four runs in their first at bat, had a 4-1 lead, but Northern rallied with eight unanswered runs in its final three at bats to win 9-4 at the University of Maryland softball field.
It was Northern's eighth consecutive 3A crown and it was Northern that beat CMW in last year's state semifinal round, which left a little more sting with this latest loss.
"It does, because last year in the semifinals, we lost in the very last inning," senior Caroline Weimer said. "It was a tie ball game and we lost in the very last inning on an error, so we thought that coming in today, (their pitcher from last year was gone), it was going to be so easy to beat them, but they got us in the end."
The Patriots (22-2) got an RBI single from Sarah Bennett in the fifth. In the sixth, Michaela Schaefer fueled the game-changing rally with a one-out single. Marissa Wimmer was hit by a pitch and Holly Van Wie walked to load the bases. Gina Seifert singled in the first run and Kassidy Cross followed with a single that cleared the bases.
In the seventh, Bennett and Kaylee Cross hit back-to-back singles to begin the inning. Schaefer drove both in with a single and the final run scored on one of seven Mustang errors.
The Patriots first run came in the first inning.Kassidy Cross hit a leadoff single and raced to second when the ball was mis-played in short center field. Cross stole third and scored on Bennett's groundout.
CMW answered in a big way in its half of the first. Freshman Emily Kim's one-out triple deep and just inside the right field line got the Mustangs going. With two away, Jenny Lynch was hit by a pitch and fellow freshman Katie Murphy followed with a single, plating Kim.
Quinn Ursprung was also hit by a pitch, loading the bases for Morghan Fulton, who pounded a pitch deep to the right-center field gap, driving in all three base runners.
"I just knew I had to get a hit because we were down one, and it was so nerve-racking," Fulton said. "Everyone was chanting at the same time and it was just like, I feel so much pressure and both the pitches were right down the middle, so I just took it to right-center. That's the best that I could have asked for because I scored three runs."
The Mustangs had runners on base in every inning, except the fifth, but could not push any more runs across.
Fulton took the loss for the Mustangs (21-4), allowing 12 hits over six and two-third innings. She struck out two.
Kaylee Cross collected the win, allowing six hits – just three after the first inning. She struck out four.