Familiar foe ends Cougars’ softball season

By Robert Sisk

Published: May 26, 2008

By Robert Sisk
The News Virginian
STUARTS DRAFT — Stuarts Draft found itself in several familiar situations Monday afternoon in the first-round of the Region III tournament, most notably having its season ended by a team north on the Turkey Trail.
Former Valley district foe, and current Massanutten No. 3 seed Spotswood, eliminated the Southern Valley District runner-ups from the Region III tournament with an 8-2 win, earning the chance to take on No. 1 Brookville today.
“This is as far as we have been since I have been here and it’s important for the kids and the seniors to earn the right to move forward,” said Spotswood coach Bob Lewellen.
Much like their regular-season games the Cougars started strong against the Trailblazers, before flickering like a light bulb close to losing its filament in the final innings.
“We started making mistakes and having error after error, and that made it tough to come back on them,” said Draft coach Michelle Campbell.
Draft pitcher Erin Brown pitched two flawless innings before the Trailblazers started to chip away at the Cougar defense. In the third, Spotswood’s Megan Lindsay scored on a Molly Smith sacrifice.
In the fourth, Spotswood added three more runs and the Cougars committed their first of six errors. Draft was producing base runners, but stranded all eight.
“We all knew that we had to stop them and not let them score,” Smith said. “We just stepped up the defense.”
By the end of the sixth the Cougars were barley treading water, allowing two more runs to score and still staring a regional shutout in the face, with the score 7-0 in the Trailblazers’ favor.
A 42-minute rain and lighting delay sent both teams to the locker room moments before the final inning began and gave the Cougars some time to think about what had happened in the previous innings.
Once the teams trudged back to the diamond the rain had subsided into a light sprinkle allowing the final inning to continue. Spotswood’s Jessica Morris scored in the top of the inning on a Cadie Loan wild pitch and Michelle Wood was on third after a Cougar error.
The Cougars’ season was almost at an end, but they fought to salvage some good memories from the final game.
With one out, the Trailblazers’ Holly Dean sent a hard line drive straight to Loan. Loan was able to gather the ball for an out and caught a surprised Wood on third for the double play.
The brief surge of momentum was enough for the Cougars to salvage their offensive game and avoid an elimination shutout.
The Cougars’ Courtney Lucas walked and scored Draft’s first run on an Ariel Christy double. Christy scored the final run of the Cougars’ season on a first-base error.
“I’m really proud of them,” Campbell said. “Getting a couple of runs after the rain, because usually when we have a break, we shut down.”
Spotswood pitcher Smith took the win, pitching the complete game with 12 strikeouts. Brown took the loss, giving up seven hits and five runs.
Spotswood will travel to Brookville today to take on the Bees at 5 p.m.