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| photo courtesy Steven Holland/Viva Loudoun |
"We are going all the way. This is our year," said junior Sydney Broderick after the Bulldogs opened the AAA Northern Region tournament with a 4-0 win over Westfield. Stone Bridge (21-2) faces Lake Braddock on Monday at 6 p.m. in a quarterfinal at Falls Church High School.
Getting through the early rounds of the Northern Region can be tricky, especially when the Liberty District is matched up with Concorde District teams like Friday evening, so there was a collective exhale among the Bulldog fans when Stone Bridge finally padded its 1-0 first inning lead with three runs in the sixth. Junior pitcher Kelly McDaniel retired the visiting Bulldogs 1-2-3 in the seventh to complete her 5-hit shutout.
"Tonight was the bear looming in the backgroud so winning was a huge sigh of relief," said Stone Bridge 2nd-year coach Billy Rice. "Now they can go and have some fun next week and see what happens."
Stone Bridge's batting order features seven of nine juniors including the first five hitters. Overall the Bulldogs roster has three seniors, eight juniors, two sophomores and two freshman. Rice coached all but two of those juniors two years ago as freshman when he was Stone Bridge's JV coach. From top to bottom the team is coming together at the right time.
"They are gelling together as a team," said Rice.
McDaniel is not an overpowering pitcher but changes up her pitches well, uses off-speed effectively and forces opponents to put the ball in play against a very good Stone Bridge defense anchored up the middle by juniors Olivia Tatara (catcher), Niki Prince (shortstop) and Broderick (center field).
"We always have (McDaniel's) back," said Prince, who had a nifty play in the sixth inning where she fielded a ball that deflected off the third basemen's glove and fired to first to catch the Westfield runner by a half step.
If a solid defense has been a constant of Stone Bridge's sparkling season then the other feature of the team is a group that swings some big bats up and down the line-up.
"We have a lot of juniors that can hit the heck out of the ball," said senior Brittney Burnett, who starts in the field at first base.
On Friday, Stone Bridge junior Courtney Gibson walked in the first inning, Broderick gave a two-out pitch a ride to left field that Westfield fielder had a bead on the ball but it glanced off her glove while she was on the run and Gibson easily scored on the three-base error to make it 1-0 Stone Bridge.
The score stayed that way until the bottom of the sixth, which was not a surprise to the Bulldogs.
"We usually start slow but do well in the middle to end of games," said Prince.
McDaniel started the inning with a line out to left but the Bulldogs bats appeared to have been microwaved as they were hot with Broderick ripping a single to center and Tatara chasing the Westfield starter with an RBI double to right-center.
Stone Bridge continued hitting against the new Westfield pitcher with sophomore Jade Fleming lacing an RBI single to center to make it 3-0. After an out, junior Presley Gibson finished the 3-run inning by dropping a single in shallow right-center.
McDaniel finished just as strong as the offense, retiring the final seven hitters she faced and striking out three of the final five Westfield batters.
Northern Region First Round
South County 3, Washington-Lee 0
Robinson 3, Madison 2
Oakton 3, McLean 1
Hayfield 7, Annandale 3
Chantilly 1, Langley 0
West Potomac 5, Yorktown 0
Lake Braddock 4, Mount Vernon 0
Stone Bridge 4, Westfield 0
Northern Region Quarterfinals at Falls Church
South County vs. Robinson, 11 a.m.
Oakton vs. Hayfield, 1 p.m.
Chantilly vs. West Potomac, 4 p.m.
Oakton vs. Hayfield, 1 p.m.
Chantilly vs. West Potomac, 4 p.m.
Lake Braddock vs. Stone Bridge, 6 p.m.
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