Glen Burnie -Three unearned runs sent the C. Milton Wright softball team to defeat Wednesday evening in an Class 3A state semifinal loss at the Bachman Softball Complex. The Mustangs (17-6) were edged by Huntingtown, 3-2.
The damage came in the top of the third inning with CMW leading 1-0. A dropped fly ball, followed by a second drop on a tag play set the stage for Callie Hilgenberg's ground rule, two-run triple.
Hilgenberg drove the ball down the right field line where Mustangs right fielder Lexi Childress dove for it. The ball eluded her and bounced away toward the out of play area. Hilgenberg circled the bases for a three-run home run, but after questioning from Mustangs coach Russ Kovach, the umpires conferred and ruled a triple with two runs scoring. Hilgenberg then scored the third run on the inning's third error.
"It's something I tell them a lot, they all know it. In a game this evenly matched, I mean if you look on paper, these teams are really evenly matched, very similar. The team that makes the least mistakes is the one that's going to win," Kovach said. "We know that and that's what happened today. It does really boil down to that one inning."
CMW had taken the 1-0 lead in the second on a pair of singles and two errors by the Hurricanes infield. Danielle DeAgostino and Cassidy Cochran hit back-to-back, two-out singles. Quinn Ursprung then hit a pop fly toward second baseman Jordan Paddy. Paddy dropped the ball and to make matters worse, threw the ball away trying to get a runner at third. Michelle Cisco, the courtesy runner for catcher DeAgostino, jumped and ran home wit the run.
Down 3-1, CMW got within a run on DeAgostino's solo home run in the fourth. The Mustangs put runners on in the fifth and sixth innings, but were not able to come up with another run.
Senior pitcher Morghan Fulton, playing in her final game with the Mustangs, allowed just four hits in the tough loss. She struck out two and walked none.
"I don't really know what I was thinking during the time, because everything had to be left out on the field," Fulton said. This was my last game for C. Milton Wright, ever, which is very emotional, but I mean I wouldn't want to go out with a better group of girls. It's like, yeah, we had lapses in the infield that could have cost us the game, be we also had, not so doing well on offense, so either way, the game could have gone both ways."
Huntingtown pitcher Tori Fletcher, a freshman, held CMW to four hits. She didn't walk a batter and struck out six.
DeAgostino had two hits to lead the CMW offense.