Softball: Howard A Win Away From Playing For State Title

With a 4-2 win over the Atholton Raiders in the regional championship, the Howard Lions move into the state semi-final and are just a win away from playing for their ultimate goal of a state title.

“Our goal was to win county, regionals and states,” Lions coach Dave Vezzi said after the game. “We got two out of three so far.”

After the final out was made, Howard athletes and those in the stands made no special celebration. Vezzi said a few words of congratulations to his players, and a parent encouraged the team to pose with their trophy. But otherwise, it was a win like any other; the Lions were focused on what lies ahead on Tuesday night against Damascus rather than their accomplishments along the way.

That does not mean it was not an exciting game.

Howard’s Sammi O’Connor and Atholton’s Haylie Goheen threw zeros at each through the first four innings.

“We had scoring opportunities early in the game,” Vezzi said afterwards, “but we just couldn’t get a clutch hit.”

The clutch hit came in the fifth inning. With a runner on first and third, Loryn McMillin knocked a hard-line drive single over the left-hand side of the infield and into left field to score Samantha Travisano and Julie Barnhouse.

Travisano had led-off the inning with a big double and moved up by Barnhouse’s sacrifice bunt. Barnhouse made it to first on an error.

With runners on the corners again, Sage McCrann executed a suicide squeeze to give enough time for Danielle Schiavone to dash into home plate.

The fourth run of the inning came when Julia Natoli brought in a run through a RBI groundout.

Howard players bunted three times in the inning and used them to score with Natoli’s groundout. That’s okay with Vezzi.

“We were going to do whatever it takes,” he said. “If it means putting bunts down, we’re going to put bunts down.”

Howard did not manufacture those runs through bunts alone, but really used aggressive base running well to force errors and get them in a position to score. 

Atholton was able to score a run off of O’Connor in the top of the sixth and seventh innings, but fittingly the game ended with a strikeout.

Even without being able to overcome Howard, a favorite for the state title, it was still an outstanding run for the seventh-seeded Atholton Raiders under first-year coach Michael Koplov.  

“We had 14 fantastic girls, and each one of them brought something to the team,” Koplov said. “We learned a lot of life lessons [during the season], and it’s not always about softball at the end of the day.”