Cleaning Out My High School Sports Notebook

With the spring regular season winding down, here are some notes, observations and musings regarding the teams and players I’ve covered for the past few months, including a Lansdowne softball pitcher's dominance, Franklin lacrosse's resurgence and little factoids I like to call my opinion.

• Lansdowne pitcher Maude McCourry is really, really good. In her softball squad’s 15-1 win over Sparrows Point this week, the junior registered her third no-hitter of the season. (The one run scored via a walk, wild pitch, bunt and throwing error.) The three no-no’s include a perfect game against Woodlawn. The powerful right-hander has whiffed 81 batters over 49 innings and pitched to a microscopic 0.86 earned run average. McCourry throws an assortment of pitches, and catcher Sera Stull also deserves credit for calling the right ones in certain situations to keep hitters off balance.
• At the beginning of the year, Franklin boys lacrosse coach Scot Laudeman predicted some growing pains for his young squad that began the year 0-3 and lost five of its first seven. However, he’s got to be impressed with how the Indians have matured in such a short time. Since the slow start, Laudeman’s bunch has reeled off seven straight wins, including two 11-10 victories over Towson and Reservoir in the Franklin Invitational. In their final two regular-season games, wins over Aberdeen and Owings Mills, the Indians outscored their opponents a combined 37-5.
• Catonsville girls lacrosse underwent a tough stretch over the past couple weeks, losing close battles to Perry Hall, Severn and C. Milton Wright. However, their one recent win was a big one. The Comets, now 6-4, upended Hereford 11-10, which keeps them on track to potentially compete for a county championship next week. Offensively, Catonsville has been led by the attack trio of Deb Milani, Rachel Schwaab and Alex Wallace. In the losses versus Severn and C. Milton Wright, Milani tallied a total of 11 goals. Maddie Hunt, Kelli Beard and goalie Lily Schmulowitz have anchored the Comets defensively.
• Although its record sits at 2-5, Western Tech girls lacrosse coach Drew Daudelin really likes the improvement he’s seen out a team that was vastly inexperienced to start the season. The Wolverines feature five first-year varsity starters. Daudelin has been impressed with defenseman Traven Harris as well as goalie Tanaisha Pearson. Seniors Kenisha Miller and Rachel Hartig have helped lead the midfield for Western Tech, whose most well-played game of the year came in a 13-11 victory over Dundalk.
• Of all the baseball teams I’ve covered, I don’t believe there’s anyone out there who possesses the overall team speed that New Town brings to the table every game. When the Titans put the ball in play, they are incredibly tough to defend. Speedsters such as Andre Johnson, Michael Kemp and Brian Short put a ton of pressure on defenders to field the ball cleanly and make an accurate throw to first on any routine grounder, in addition to taking extra bases whenever they can.
• Seven of Franklin softball’s 10 players have an on-base percentage of at least .333. In other words, the majority of the Indians are getting on base, by any means, more than a third of the time. In fact, Jordan Monck (.556) and Mary Sobota (.500) are reaching base half the time they come up to the plate. Very impressive.
• Remember earlier in the year I updated you on Catonsville first baseman Robert Hopp? He was among some of the players that started the year on an absolute tear. Well, he hasn’t slowed down. Hopp is still batting in the vicinity of .550.
• After a boatload of rain-outs, Lansdowne baseball has finally played some games and now stands at 7-2. With the pitching as a question mark coming into the season, the Vikings have been led on offense by heart-of-the-order hitters Brian Kummerlowe, Alex Kurth and Mike Morris. The 3-4-5 combo for Lansdowne is as dangerous as any team I’ve covered.  
• The slick-fielding tandem of third baseman Vaughn Tucker and shortstop Brooks Sandler have to inspire confidence for whoever’s on the mound for Owings Mills. The Eagles' right side of the infield has looked pretty solid this season. It also helps to have a 6-foot-6 target over at first base in Austin Eber.
• Franklin catcher Mike Skaro has the strongest arm of any catcher I’ve seen this year. I get the feeling that opponents watch him during warm-ups and say they’re better off waiting for a wild pitch than stealing. Only problem is with Skaro behind the plate, there aren’t many wild pitches either.
• Western Tech's James Davis (.556 batting average) and Desean Rabb (.500) aren't letting many pitchers get the best of them.
• Franklin girls lacrosse is a solid 7-4—including a hard fought 13-12 win over Urbana—on the year with one game left on the schedule. The lady Indians have been led by Hannah Corton, Sarah Rybak, Maggie Montanye, Grace Schwartz and Rae Robinson, as well as Chelsea Weinstein in goal. However, more important than the team's record or the players who got them there is the fact that the team's 3rd Annual Pink Out game raised almost $1,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for cancer research.