By Angela Watts
Assistant GM, Washington D.C. Metro Area
** Click the links to the left to access a full photo gallery and video highlights from Wednesday’s championship game!
There are inherent expectations that come with playing softball at Bishop O’Connell, one of the Washington-area’s most storied programs.
And, certainly, in playing for Knights’ Coach Tommy Orndorff, one of the area’s most successful and most respected coaches.
And Orndorff doesn’t shy away from letting his players know it.
“We talk about the history all the time, and it does put a great deal of pressure on the team,” Orndorff said. “But we play a schedule that gets us ready for this in May.”
It showed Wednesday afternoon at Catholic University as this young 2009 version of the Knights — which boasts only three seniors and only one of which who starts — did their part in adding to O’Connell’s already rich legacy.
O’Connell, which has recorded 20 wins or more in each of the past 17 seasons, also earned its sixth consecutive Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship with a hard-fought, 1-0 victory over St. Mary’s Ryken (18-5 overall).
The win gives O’Connell (21-4 overall) a staggering 22 league championships in the past 24 years.
“We’re a young team,” Orndorff said. “But every time I walk out here my young kids surprise me. And they did today.”
Locked in a scoreless tie through two-and-a-half innings of play, O’Connell senior Tori Portell reached after being hit by a pitch. That brought sophomore Jessica Burk to the plate with one runner on and two out in the bottom of the third inning.
And, in the end, that was all that mattered.
Burk blasted an RBI triple down the right field line that scored Portell from first base for what proved the game-winner.
“It was a curve ball, and I tip my hat to her because she did a great thing,” St. Mary’s Ryken junior pitcher Stephanie Dameron said. “She took that curveball outside to right field. It was a great swing.”
St. Mary’s Ryken shortstop Erin Leddy made a spectacular grab to end the third inning — and, as Orndorff said, rob O’Connell of a second run — and then the pitching dual resumed.
Dameron and O’Connell sophomore pitcher Jilly Falle both left batters struggling to get on base throughout the game.
Falle struck out 10 batters, yielded only two hits and walked none while retiring the side in the first, second, third, fifth and sixth innings. Dameron countered with four strikeouts, two hits, no walks and similarly retired the side in the first, second and fifth innings.
And with O’Connell still holding that slim, 1-0 lead headed into the top of the seventh inning, St. Mary’s Ryken Coach Scott Kuhns rallied his team and delivered one final message.
“No pressure,” Kuhns told his team. “No pressure. Just go out there and do your best.”
Then, he added: “But your best needs to be a hit.”
Dameron responded with her second hit of the game, this one a lead-off single to right field that brought the St. Mary’s Ryken fans to their feet.
“Jilly’s a competitor,” Orndorff said of his pitcher. “Her curve ball has tremendous movement and while her velocity seems to come-and-go, she was on today.
“But she’s also emotional. She got a little uptight there in the end after that hit. It shook her up a bit. But, at the same time, you see the way she responded in those last few at-bats. This was big for her.”
After a sacrifice bunt moved Dameron to second base, Falle recorded her 10th and final strikeout of the game before luring St. Mary’s Ryken’s final batter into a ground out to third base to seal the victory.
“To me, when it’s a game like today and a pitchers’ dual, it’s a beautiful sport,” Orndorff said. “But I’d much rather be back [where the fans are sitting] than in the dugout. Those types of games give me even more gray hairs.
“But for the sport of softball, and for the league itself, you couldn’t have asked for a better championship game. It’s pitching and defense at it’s best, and you saw that by both teams today.”
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
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