Freshman pitcher Ally McBride lifts Catholic softball to 6-4 season-opening victory over Mercy

It’s not very often that a freshman pitcher gets an opening day start on varsity.

Catholic’s Ally McBride proved that her coach, Derrick Adams, made the correct decision Tuesday, striking out 11 batters in a 6-4 victory over Mercy in Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference play.

Not only was she strong on the mound, but she hit a double to score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth inning for a 5-4 lead.

“I’ve been given a great opportunity on varsity as a freshman,” McBride said. “I’m blessed to have the teammates that I do, and that God has given me the great gift to display on a varsity team. I feel that I am happy here and that I really helped my team out today.”

Adams’ team features three seniors, five juniors, one sophomore and three freshmen. Only one of his 11 players didn’t play in the game. Each made a winning contribution, whether it was a putout, a hit, a walk, a run or recording a strikeout. It’s part of the trust that he holds with his team to get the job done.

“Character. The girls have character,” Adams said. “We tell them that it only takes one incident, one time, one play, one pitch or one at-bat — it can change everything. We tell them not to let any one thing that gets us down to keep us down. Just keep fighting. We try to win innings. If we win multiple innings, we win the game, and that’s what we did today.”

Andi Kremer scored in the first inning off of a wild pitch by Mercy’s Gretchen Barstad to give Catholic a 1-0 lead. The Magic responded with Annabelle Hafner walking and stealing second and third before scoring on a wild pitch by McBride. Maddie Kersch drove in Aryssa Reid on an infield single on the next play to give Mercy a 2-1 lead.

Catholic’s Catherine Stock scored on a wild pitch in the top of the second to tie the game at 2. In the bottom of the third, Barstad drew a leadoff walk and stole second base. Then, she took third base as Hafner struck out and scored on a wild pitch to give Mercy a 3-2 lead.

In the sixth, Catholic’s Sara Green doubled, but was thrown out at third attempting a triple. Johanna Roche followed with a single and Olivia Myers took her place as the runner. Myers advanced from first to third and scored on a wild pitch by Barstad to tie the game at 3.

Then came a little bit more magic for Mercy as Reid singled to lead off the bottom of the sixth and Olivia Clifton bunted her home for a 4-3 lead.

The Cubs wouldn’t relent. Stock reached first base on a bunt and an error, advanced to second after a groundout and moved to third. Kaylah Morosko singled to right field to score Stock and tie the game at 4.

Then it was McBride’s turn. She hit a double to score Morosko to retake the lead at 5-4 and went on score on a wild pitch to give the Cubs a 6-4 lead.

Mercy coach Danico Harvey felt that his players were nearly in the correct position to claim victory. It just came down to holding on to the final out or holding runners at bay.

“[In our] first game, I saw a lot of good stuff,” Harvey said. “The one thing that I think we need to work on is making more routine plays. If we make the routine plays, I think we win that game. We make the routine plays, get our bunts down, move runners around and I think we win that game.”