(Story by Parker Stone)
Charles Town, W. Va.- The Washington High School Lady Patriots softball team scored a dominant 7-1 victory Thursday evening against rival Jefferson High School.
It was the Cougars who scored the game’s first run in the top of the first off a Becca Munslow single to bat in leadoff hitter Jersey Rummel. The Cougars led by a run, but it was short lived.
Washington’s Carly Constantino got on base with a single. Anna Sedlock sent the ball hard into left field on the next at bat and an error on the Cougars end allowed both to score.
Both teams showed their defensive prowess in the second inning as Washington’s Chloe Constantino struck out two Cougar batters while Jefferson’s Becca Munslow struck out a Patriot for good measure.
The third inning saw Constantino strike out one, two, and three in the order. A single from Courtney Greenfield and a double by Chloe Constantino put two in scoring position for Morgan Cave to score them both on a single for the Patriots.
Zoe Kesterson that same inning would score Cave giving Washington a 5-1 lead.
The dominance on the mound continued for Chloe Constantino as she would strike out another in the fourth. The Patriots’ leadoff hitter Gabby Bibb would reach second base on an error and would get knocked in by Carly Constantino to increase the lead to five.
Courtney Greenfield would reach base on a walk and would score in the same inning. Washington would take now a 7-1 lead into the fifth inning.
Chloe Constantino struck out another two batters in the top of the fifth as the Cougars remained in their scoring drought. Constantino would only allow four hits in the victory.
“She came in big,” said Washington head coach Amanda Orkoskey. “She’s been battling through a few things so I’m super proud of her. I couldn’t have asked more from her on the mound.”
Addison Musser would send a line drive to left centerfield that would give her a triple but was unable to score as the fifth inning ended.
Both teams made impressive plays in the field in the sixth, with Washington’s Jordan Clayton the last two outs in the top of the sixth and Rummel of Jefferson making an impressive jumping play for the first out of the bottom of the sixth.
“It’s trust and we work on a lot of fundamentals and communication drills,” said Orkoskey on the impressive defensive play of outfielders Greenfield, Bibb, and Clayton. “We were able to fully use the depth of the outfield by playing at our home field and getting the one seed. Great communication and great trust from the three of them.”
The game’s final out occurred on a Madison Clark groundout first on the throw from the shortstop Sedlock.
In defeat the Lady Cougars move to 23-8 and will face Hampshire in an elimination game Friday evening.
Washington, who now sits at 19-5, will await the winner of that game on Saturday for the Region 2 Section 2 championship game. Washington would have to be defeated twice by whoever wins on Friday in the double elimination format.
