When the season started, one of the goals that the Mount de Sales Sailors set was to beat John Carroll. The Sailors did that and more Wednesday, spotting the Patriots a five-run lead before a spirited eight-run fifth inning led to a 12-8 win over host John Carroll.
Surprisingly, the normally sure-handed Patriots helped them out, contributing four errors along the way at crucial times.
Ava McQueen and Olivia Berger had three hits each to pace the Sailors, while Patriots starting pitcher Emily Hildt had three hits, two of which were doubles, in a losing effort.
“I just took it one batter at a time,” Mount de Sales winning pitcher Brooke Fuhr said. “I never like to count us out. We’re a good hitting team and we showed we have resilience. This is a game we’ve waited for for a long time.”
The Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland has traditionally been a two-team race between Archbishop Spalding and John Carroll. Though Mount de Sales is sometimes in that mix, it’s been a while.
“It’s been a long time [since we beat them],” Mount de Sales coach Pete Waskiewicz said. “We got hit pretty hard by the pandemic and we had to rebuild everything. We’re on our way now and we’re getting there. A little bit at a time.”
“We collectively all hit well together,” McQueen said. “When one person starts hitting it lights a spark and it’s something we build off of.”
The Sailors (5-3, 5-1) looked like they needed a lifeboat after the fourth Inning. They had one hit to show for their offensive output. Then came the top of the fifth.
Trailing 5-0, McQueen led the inning off with a single. She was followed by infield singles by Mara Granzow and Emma Fox. Fox’s single scored McQueen to cut the lead to 5-1. The next batter was Fuhr, who singled to score Granzow to reduce the lead even more to 5-2. All totaled, the Sailors sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning, and got two RBIs each by Quinn Hastings, Olivia Berger and McQueen on a double in the inning. When the smoke cleared, the Sailors finished the inning with an 8-5 lead.
John Carroll (5-2, 3-2) managed to cut the lead again, using a Hildt double that plated Kalissa Coats to get one back at 8-6 after five innings. The Patriots clawed even closer in the bottom of the sixth when a Kyle Hinkleman single scored Lily Rasmussen to cut the margin to 8-7.
Mount de Sales, though, put the game away in the top of the seventh. The Sailors got another hit by McQueen before benefitting from another John Carroll error. That put McQueen and Granzow on base with no one out. A bunt by Fox led to another throwing error and allowed McQueen to score for a 9-7 lead. A single by Olivia Ross scored both Fox and Granzow for an 11-7 lead. A Hastings double scored Tori Dantinne for the final Sailors run.
The Patriots got one back in the bottom of the seventh, but could get no closer as Fuhr retired Hinkleman on ground ball to end the game.
Patriots coach Sherry Hudson said her team made too many mistakes, and those errors proved costly.
“You give good teams extra outs and they score lots of runs,” said Hudson. “That basically sums up the game. When you score five runs you have to keep pouring it on. You can’t sit back. You have to continue to be aggressive.”
Mount de Sales 12, John Carroll 8
MdS 000 080 4 – 12 14 1
JC 300 211 1 – 8 11 4
WP – Fuhr
LP – Hildt
Doubles: Mds – Hastings, McQueen; JC – Pindell, Hildt 2.