Wolverines Hold Bruins to Four Runs

The West Potomac Wolverines fell to the Lake Braddock Bruins tonight, with a 4-0 loss. Considering Lake Braddock is ranked #2 in the Northern Virginia/Maryland/DC area and are three deep with top-notch pitchers, our girls walked off the field with their heads held high.

                                                             

Once West Po settled down, their defense started working and only allowed 4 runs – pretty respectable considering the spankings Lake Braddock has been handing out to other teams.  

In the top of the 2^nd, Jayne Orleans put down a single in the score book, with an infield tap the Bruins couldn’t get their hands on. Raven then reached on an error. Olivia Manous’s sacrifice bunt allowed the runners to advance to second and third, but there they would stay - never reaching home.

Grace Moery led the Wolverine’s defense tonight as she showed her stuff in the outfield. In the bottom of the 5^th, she was perfectly placed for a deep fly ball to center, catching that can of corn with ease. 

Third baseman Annabelle Miller brought the leather tonight, fielding a hard hit ground ball and choosing to get the lead runner going to second, rather than the easy out at first. This saved a run, as the next batter hit a nice single to CF. Grace was there to field the ball, and made a dead-on throw to Annabelle at third, who easily tagged out the advancing runner.

Annabelle also ‘brought the wood’ tonight (er, aluminum), lacing a hard line drive to centerfield. This advanced Grace to second, putting her in scoring position. After a wild pitch (we didn’t see many of those tonight), Grace and Annabelle both got a stolen base and were at third and second, respectively – ducks on the pond (so happy I was able to work that one in!). Unfortunately, that’s where they would stay – stranded ducks on the pond.

In the bottom of the 6^th, things got a little confusing (not just for me but for the umpires, too!). Let’s see if I can get this right … there was one out, runners on second and third. Lake Braddock’s Patty Maye Ohanian hit one to deep left center.  Grace made an amazing running backhand catch, and quickly threw to Annabelle at third – but not in time to get the advancing runner out. That girl was safe at third (for the time being). The runner - who was on third base before the hit - safely scored. And then there was Patty Maye - standing on second base. Huh? Wasn’t she out because Grace just made an amazing catch?

The West Po fans got rowdy and Coach Craig called time out and had a lengthy discussion with the umpires. It was first determined that Patty Maye was indeed out (duh!).  Coach Craig also made an appeal play, claiming the runner who was originally on second (and now on third) never tagged up and should be out. After a lot of "discussing," the umpires agreed with the Big Manig and so this turned into a … double play? (Oh Glen, hurry home, I can’t keep up anymore.)

This was about as exciting as the evening got. The Wolverines gave up a total of four runs, two of which were unearned. Not too shabby and certainly not the “crushing” Lake Braddock was just recently quoted for giving out to teams on their regular-season slate.  West Potomac softball earned just a little bit more respect tonight. 

Wolverine Whispers:  West Potomac plays Thomas Edison on Saturday, April 5th at 2pm. The venue is Edison High School. West Po bats should be on fire. Blogger Glen Bolger *should* be back if he isn't suffering from too much jet lag. See you on the field!