On September 19, the Frederick Golden Eagle varsity softball team faced off against Severance High during a heated home game. While it was a close game the final was 11-9 with Severance coming out on top, yet there is so much more to it than just the final outcome. What really matters is what led up to the final score between the two teams.
The game began with the Golden Eagles having a very strong defense throughout the top of the inning, the bottom of the inning is when the game started really rolling, Frederick jumped on Severance right away with senior Mak Sais starting it off, earning a base hit and then advancing to third on a ground out.
During the next at-bat, with great softball awareness, junior Avery Salisbury put down a bunt that forced the Severance pitcher to retrieve the ball. Avery would then be called safe at first, while senior Mak Sais drew a pickle allowing Avery to advance to second, and finally scoring once they turned their back on her.
This gave Frederick the lead and allowed Avery to advance to third in scoring position with no outs all in one play… and all with Mak having a broken hand. After that play, Hailey Simmons hit a ground-out RBI to bring in Avery to bring the score to a 2-0 in the first inning, Severance managed to shut Frederick down and get two more outs closing the first inning.
In the top of the second, the Silver Knights bounced back and scored 4 runs to make the score 4-2. They started it off with a single to the outfield. After that, the next two hitters got on base with a walk and bunt which loaded the bases. Severance finally got on the board with an even-game shot to right field, and then with a lead-swinging hit down the middle.
Finally, after all that with bases loaded Frederick worked for 3 outs in a row with two ground balls and one fly ball with a great catch made by senior Mak Sais. In the bottom half the Severance defense was super strong only allowing 2 walks and no runs. In the third and fourth innings, Severance was on fire, scoring 7 and taking advantage of every opportunity given to them.
Finally, in the fifth inning, Frederick’s defense started to click and pick back up from the first inning, giving up zero runs and making a great diving play by short-stop junior Avery Salisbury to end the top half of the fifth inning. In the bottom half of the fifth inning, the Golden Eagles started getting their bats going again by scoring two runs to keep them in the ball game. This inning was crucial for the softball team and this inning fired everyone up.
In the top of the sixth Frederick’s defense was pretty solid only letting in two runs and putting us down by 7, which was very disappointing. Yet that didn’t stop the Golden Eagles from playing hard and in the bottom of the inning their sticks were on fire and they put up five runs. That was huge for them as they were only down by two going into the last inning of the ball game.
To end the game in the seventh, both teams’ defenses were really good so no one scored that inning and Severance shut Frederick’s bats down and took advantage of every silly mistake made by Frederick’s defense with the final score of 11-9. Even though Severance came out with the win, the Frederick Golden Eagles varsity softball team put up a heck of a fight especially in that fifth inning never giving up.
