Softball
Wildcats make the most of their lone hit
Severna Park errors load bases before decisive at-bat
With the bases loaded and no one out in a tie game in the bottom of the seventh inning, Arundel’s Steffany Jerman didn’t bother looking down toward her third base coach.
Jerman didn’t waste any time, either, as she jumped on the first offering from Severna Park’s Marissa Heuer and lined a single to right-center field that scored the winning run in Arundel’s 2-1 victory over Severna Park.
Jerman’s hit was the first for the Wildcats, who took advantage of three Severna Park errors to load the bases.
“I’m not one to wait,” Jerman said. “I knew we had no outs, so if I would hit the ball we’d score. Anything that was close, I wanted to go for it.”
Though the matchup was between two of the top teams in Anne Arundel County, it was hardly a masterpiece. The teams combined for 11 errors and left a combined 13 runners on base. Jerman’s hit was a solid line drive and easily scored pinch runner Gaby Borrego.
“We actually had more errors than I’m used to seeing today, but so did they,” Arundel coach Lisa Mills said. “It was a hard-fought battle the whole game and it was just a matter of who was going to bust it open.”
The Wildcats were able to do in their half of the seventh what the Falcons couldn’t do in the top of the inning. The first two runners reached for the Falcons and they had runners on second and third with two outs, but they weren’t able to push across the go-ahead run.
“We were hitting the ball well, we just couldn’t capitalize when we had the opportunity,” Severna Park coach Meredith McAlister said. “We made some mental mistakes.”
Arundel starter Grace Palmieri pitched into the seventh, but left after hitting a batter to set the Falcons up with runners on first and second and none out. Caroline Mills relieved Palmieri and recorded a strikeout and a groundout before getting the final out on a fly ball to right.
“She hasn’t pitched a whole lot this year because she’s coming off an injury,” Lisa Mills said. “We hadn’t really put her in a pressure situation yet, so it was nice to see her after almost a year of not really pitching a whole lot to be able to come in and do that.”
Arundel scored its other run in the third inning after three straight errors loaded the bases and Tiffany Jerman reached on a fielder’s choice that forced in a run. Heuer, who finished with four strikeouts, shut down the Wildcats the rest of the inning to prevent further damage.
Other than the two innings in which the Falcons committed the errors that led to the runs, Heuer walked just two batters and otherwise shut down the Wildcats.
“You can’t make errors, plain and simple,” McAlister said. “That was the difference in this game.”
SP (6-2) | 000 | 100 | 0 | — | 1 | 3 | 6 |
A (6-2) | 001 | 000 | 1 | — | 2 | 1 | 5 |
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