Dulaney softball scored a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning and pitcher Madison Schupple ended the game with her 10th strikeout in the Lions’ 4-2 victory over Towson on Thursday.

Schupple allowed one earned run and walked five in the complete-game effort. Her clutch pitching in the bottom of the third inning changed the game for the Lions (14-3).

Towson led 2-1 after RBI singles from Grace Cheevers and Aviva McElhenney and they loaded the bases in the third on two walks and a hit batter. Schupple came back to strike out the side and keep the Generals off the board.

“I told the girls and my coaches once she pitched out of that bases-loaded situation with no outs, we are going to win this game,” Dulaney coach Dave Barwick said. “She beared down and struck a couple batters out. It was amazing. That put us right back in the game and ready to play softball.”

Schupple has thrived under pressure all season, and Thursday was no exception.

“It definitely made me nervous, but I trusted the field behind me and I knew that if they were going to hit it, my field’s got me. So honestly, they rattled me at first, but I think we really came back, we really fought. I came back and I fought and I was very, very happy about winning,” Schupple said. “Usually when I get more and more into the game, I kind of get more into a rhythm.”

She also struck out three straight batters at the end of the fifth and the start of the sixth inning.

“The first inning is always my roughest inning, but as time goes on, I kind of get into that flow and I think that’s kind of what happened today,” Schupple said.

“She’s a good pitcher, She pitched very, very well,” Towson coach Dan Sexton said. “Two times we’ve seen her this year — she pitched for Carver last year and she pitched very well against us.”

Dulaney’s first run in the top of the third inning was manufactured with small ball, a trend it carried through the contest. Ava O’Donnell reached on a bunt single, stole second and scored on a base hit by Schupple.

The Lions tied the game in the fifth after Ester Weinstein singled with one out and scored two batters later on a sharp single by Lila Gordon.

Tied at 2 in the top of the seventh, Dulaney’s Bryn Townsend was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Chloe Renaldo’s sacrifice bunt was botched for an error. Ester Weinstein grounded to pitcher Jelana Gardner and forced Townsend at third, but a wild pitch and bunt single by O’Donnell loaded the bases with one out.

Gordon plated two on a ground out to second base, giving the Lions a two-run cushion.

“Ester came around third with no hesitation,” Barwick said. “They hesitated and I said, ‘Go, go, go, go, go’ and she went hard and she slid and it was no problem.”

“They beat us where it counted, the small ball situations,” Sexton said. “We were in the same situation with bases loaded and we tried the small ball and it just didn’t happen. They made it happen when it counted.”

The loss spoiled Towson’s senior day and a standout pitching performance from senior Gardner. She allowed only five hits and struck out seven, while walking nobody.

“Even though we haven’t needed it all year, we’ve been practicing bunting all year because it’s going to come to that usually any way down the end,” Barwick said. “So we got three bunts down and we ran the bases amazing.”

“Hats off to them, they did very, very good, a very solid team over there,” Sexton said. “It was a very good game. We had an opportunity with bases loaded and no outs and we tried to bunt three times in a row and couldn’t lay it down, and they did the same thing but it worked for them. It could have been a difference in the game in that one inning.”

Dulaney hosts Sparrows Point in the regular-season finale on Monday and will play in the Baltimore County championship game on Tuesday at CCBC Catonsville. Towson (10-5) hosts Eastern Tech on Monday and both teams, along with Sparrows Point are battling for the right to play Dulaney in the county championship.

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