From the first pitch to the final out, the Lady Mountaineers dominated Crest Ridge in the spring softball state title game on Saturday. They shut out the Lady Cougars 7-0.
“It’s quite the feeling knowing that our girls played about as perfect of a game as they could play today,” said head coach Matt Schubert. “It was a really outstanding effort by an outstanding group of young ladies.”
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Maddie Brown pitched a gem, going the distance while allowing just four hits, no walks and striking out three batters. The senior has been a staple in the program since its birth just four seasons ago.
“Amazing,” she said. “This feels awesome. I’m way too excited. I don’t know what to do with myself because I’m so excited. This is just what we’ve been striving for from the beginning of the year, our whole careers really. It’s a great way to end our season and go out as a senior.”
The Lady Mountaineers had a heck of a weekend in the state tournament. They tossed back-to-back shutouts, beating Malden 4-0 on Friday and then Crest Ridge 7-0 on Saturday in the title game.
“Momentum helps,” said Schubert. “We were able to keep it on our side the whole time. What a way for that senior group to go out, being state champs and doing it with two consecutive shutouts.”
Mount Vernon’s offense was as steady as its pitching and defense on Saturday. First baseman Morgan Hull got her team on the board in the first inning with an RBI double. Hull finished the season as the RBI leader for her squad, knocking in 45 runs on the year. Kendra Foulk drove in a couple runs on a double off the first-base bag in the fourth inning. Then in the fifth inning, Kendra’s sister Kaitlyn Foulk ripped an RBI double of her own to make the score 5-0. Whitney Wiehe also had a good day, going 2-2 at the plate with a walk and three runs scored.
And just for good measure, Maddie Brown hit a double over the left-fielder’s head and off the wall to drive in two more runs in the bottom of the sixth, adding more insurance heading into the final frame. Brown went 2-4 at the plate with two runs batted in and a run scored.
“We have nine deep,” Brown said of the team’s lineup. “We can all hit. We don’t have one weak spot in our lineup. I think that helps so much just to keep tacking on runs and tacking on runs one by one like we did in the beginning, and then just get going like we did. It just helps a lot.”
Crest Ridge got the better of Mount Vernon in 2014 when the two faced off in the Final Four, winning 8-5 before falling to Kennett in the title game. The Lady Cougars also beat the Lady Mountaineers earlier this season 7-4 in the Mount Vernon Invitational tournament on Apr. 16. Schubert says the difference this time around had everything to do with execution.
“We were leading them 4-1 going into the top of the seventh last time,” he said, “and we had I think three or four fielding errors in the top of the seventh. Then they had a couple hits after that. And we didn’t make those mistakes today. Our defense played great, Maddie pitched great and we had some timely hitting.”
Mount Vernon finishes with a 25-7 record and a state title. Crest Ridge ended up 21-2 and was shut out for the first time all season. Maddie Brown and the other three seniors will surely reminisce on this season for the rest of their lives.
“Indescribable, really,” said Brown. “I knew we could do it. I was telling the girls last night in bed as we were laying there in the hotel, saying, ‘you know guys, I can’t believe that we came this far.’ At the beginning of the year we were like, ‘oh yeah, we’re going to make it to state!’ And that’s our goal, but it just seemed so far-fetched and so far out there that it just didn’t really seem possible. But we knew that we could do it. And all of a sudden, it just came like a storm. Like, it’s here, and I just couldn’t believe it. But I knew we could do it, and we did, and we just do what we do.”
Crest Ridge – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0
Mount Vernon – 1 – 1 – 0 – 2 – 1 – 2 – X — 7
