By Dan Sousa
LoudounPrepSports.com Senior Content Editor
Leesburg (May 22, 2009) – “I believe. You believe. We
believe in you!”
The chant was steady from the Briar Woods High School
softball dugout Thursday as the Falcons kept a positive outlook despite
watching their first inning 3-run lead evaporate against a hard-hitting Park
View squad in the AA Dulles District title game at Heritage High School.
The Patriots had the bases loaded and no outs in the top of
the fifth inning with the score tied at 3-3, but believe the Falcons did as sophomore
relief pitcher Kristina Karagiorgis managed to get out of the jam on only two
pitches and amazingly without the ball being put into play as two Park View
runners were tagged out on the same crazy, YouTube worthy rundown and then
Karagiorgis got a strikeout to end the threat.
Briar Woods – a 4-year-old program that had gone winless in
2006 and overall just 2-40 over the first two seasons – was just one game away
from qualifying for regionals for the first time and the Falcons were up to the
task as junior catcher Jillian Olson doubled to start the bottom of the sixth
inning and then scored on No. 9 hitter, sophomore Alexandra Fierszt’s single up
the middle.
“I just went in the batter’s box saying I’m going to hit the
ball as hard as I can,” said Fierszt. “It
was the best feeling in the world.”
Karagiorgis, who stepped in for junior starter Kate Fowler
in the fifth inning after Park View had tied the game, retired the side in
order in the seventh inning – the first time all night that the Patriots went
quietly. In fact, Park View out-hit Briar Woods in the game, 8-6, and Patriot
sophomore pitcher Robin Heironimus had six strikeouts with no walks and six
hits allowed but six Patriot fielding errors – allowing two of the four runs to
cross unearned – were too much to overcome and when the final out was squeezed
it touched off an emotional celebration.
“Totally in disbelief,” is how Briar Woods coach Jennifer
Traina described the feeling. “Every couple of minutes I think ‘did we just win
the district tournament?’.”
There were smiles and there were hugs and there were tears –
especially from the Falcons’ lone senior, Kelsey Young, who celebrated her
birthday on Thursday in ways she could not have imagined during the early days
of the Briar Woods program.
“Losing 40-0 my freshman year and then coming away with the
district title this year …”, said Young as her teammates serenaded her with “Happy
Birthday” in the background. “I really can’t put it into words.”
The Patriots (13-10) were almost as young as the Falcons
(17-4) and had upset top seed Broad Run in the semifinals to set up the winner
clinches region as well as tournament title showdown.
Briar Woods, with the help of two fielding errors, jumped
out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Speedy Falcon leadoff hitter , junior
Holly Dominguez beat out an infield hit and Karagiorgis reached on an error.
Both runners scored on freshman Macy Jones’ double to make it 2-0. Later Fowler
helped her own cause with an RBI single to right field to score Jones.
Park View slowly cut into the lead with a run in the second,
a run in the third and then a run in the fifth.
The Patriots left runners on base in each of the first six
innings, stranding a total of seven.
Junior Samantha Gleason got the Pats going in the second
with a single. She was erased on a fielder’s choice at second on junior Rebecca
Patton’s grounder. Patton scooted home on junior Brittany Griffin’s RBI double.
Fowler got the next two hitters to leave Griffin at second.
Fierszt reached on an error in the bottom of the second and
moved around to third but Heironimus got back-to-back infield short pop outs to
end the inning.
Patriot sophomore Ally Rupard (2-for-3, two runs score)
singled with one out in the third and then scored on a double by Heironimus.
Again, Fowler got back-to-back outs to end the inning, the final out coming on
a nice catch by Karagiorgis in left field, as she had to track the ball down
headed towards the fence.
In the fourth inning, Patton singled for PV and stole second
but when a third strike got away from Olson with one out, she tried to take
third as the batter raced to first. Olson alertly fired to third and Patton was
tagged out.
In the fifth inning, Rupard doubled deep and after a walk to
Heironimus, she scored on a single to left by junior Miranda Kinney.
Fowler threw one pitch to Gleason before Karagiorgis was
summoned in from left. Gleason hit a
grounder that appeared to result in a force out of a courtesy runner at third
but the runner was ruled safe and the bases were loaded with no outs and a tie
game.
A pitch then got away from Olson and the Patriot runner
tried to make it home. Several feet from the plate, it was evident that the
steal wouldn’t work and the runner headed back to third only the base was now
occupied by a teammate.
The runner was caught in a rundown between third and home
and tagged out by Olson (2-1-5-2 on the play). Olson then realized that the
runner that had move to third was now headed back to second, which was also
occupied. Another runner hung up, Olson ran at the runner and flipped to
Dominguez the shortstop for the second out of the strange play. One pitch
later, Karagiorgis registered a strikeout and just like that … two pitches and
three outs.
Park View extracted a little revenge in the bottom of the
fifth inning as Karagiorgis tripled to lead off but was cut down at the plate
trying to score on a ground ball to first. Later with runners on the corners,
Heironimus got out of the fix on a line drive to short.
Karagiorgis cruised in the final two innings, allowing only
one ball out of the infield and catching all three batters in the seventh
off-balanced for pop ups.
Olson played the hero in the sixth with the leadoff double.
Junior Claire Bayles bunted Olson to third and Fierszt delivered much to the
delight of the Falcon faithful that truly believed.
“This is huge. We have come so far in our program,” said
Olson.
Briar Woods will now travel to Sherando on Monday in the Region II quarterfinals at 3
p.m. Brentsville will play at Monticello in the other quarterfinal with Broad
Run and Orange both with byes.
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