Trojans Softball Downs Wootton 11-1, Advances

The Gaithersburg softball team advanced to the 4A regional semi-finals Monday afternoon, defeating Wootton 11-1 in just six innings.

Senior pitcher Julie Hance struck out 11 batters, and gave up just three hits and one walk. She had a no-hitter going until the fifth inning.

"We needed to get a lead in this game, and put pressure on [Hance]," Wootton head coach Al Lightsey said. "I thought if we could get a lead, she would get a little wild, a little frustrated ... we could chip chip chip, but that didn't happen. She was good today."

The Trojans batted well, collectively going 13-for-31 at the plate. Only two Gaithersburg batters struck out, and only one went the game without a hit. Head coach Randy Berger was particularly pleased with the bottom of the order's production at the plate.

"We hit the ball a little bit better today, and we got some execution from some people other than the first four batters," Berger said. "It was good to see the bottom of order get on a little bit more."

"They hit the ball really well today, and we knew they were going to hit," Lightsey said. "With Hance's pitching, it's hard to come back from eight runs down."

Gaithersburg jumped to an early 8-0 lead in the second inning, however, due in large part to two fielding errors. With the bases loaded, Hance hit a soft grounder to the Wootton shortstop, who mishandled the ball, allowing a run to score. The next batter, junior third baseman Ashley DeCarlo, made it to third on another fielding error, bringing in three runs.

The Trojans went through their entire batting order in the second inning.

Wootton managed just a single run in the fifth inning off of two hits. It was the most trouble Hance had the entire game. After the run scored, she would strike out three more Patriot batters before the end of the game.

DeCarlo drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth. With Hance having batted in two more runs since the second inning, Gaithersburg needed just one more run to invoke a mercy-rule win. DeCarlo came to the plate with runners on second and third, and lined one to left field that had everyone craning their necks to watch it land just fair. Senior shortstop Jessica Harding coasted in for the win.

The skies cleared up as the game progressed in early innings, making the weather sunny and warm, but a constant, loud drums of machine equipment behind the field was the only flaw on an otherwise perfect day for softball.

Gaithersburg High School began construction in mid-April and the sounds of machines and engines have been a staple of games since then. Monday, however, was the worst the noise has been, according to Berger, as a second drill was running and both were closer to the field than before.

Both coaches played down the noise's effect on their players, but acknowledged that it was highly annoying and made it difficult to communicate. The noise mostly drowned out players' words of encouragement to each other and cheering from the crowd.

Wootton finished the regular season at .500. It's a young team, made up mostly of sophomores and a few juniors. Lightsey said he's confident the team will continue to get better as the players gain more experience.

The No. 3 seed Gaithersburg will play their regional semi-final game at No. 2 Blair today at 4 p.m. Blair defeated Magruder 5-0 in their quarterfinal game.