Kayleigh Fyffe could hear it — yellow plastic clappers on her fans’ side and desperate hoarse dugout screams on the other swelling to an overwhelming din. Northeast led Crofton all through Wednesday’s county championship game, but a four-run lead with one out to go had never been more fragile.
Cardinals batter India Stokes knew how to hit her way to first; two more Cardinals loomed from second and third. One of the county’s most capable producers of a grand slam, Marley Connor, threatened to do exactly that.
Just as Stokes stepped to the plate, catcher Taylor Castle ran up to her pitcher. Eagles coach Joe Hart assumed they swapped words of encouragement.
“Just put it over your glove,” Castle told her pitcher, who she knew well enough to know the stadium lights were blinding Fyffe’s humid-fogged glasses.
Fyffe dipped down, brushed dirt through her fingers one more time and dealt the decisive blow — a grounder to shortstop Brynn Jones, who flipped the third out into first baseman Mackenzie Weiland’s glove and secured the first county championship victory for Northeast in 10 years at Bachman Sports Complex, 5-1.
The Eagles rushed in to celebrate around their pitcher and catcher. But Fyffe and Castle just embraced each other.
“My teammates got my back, and I always got theirs,” Fyffe said. “I just felt relief. I know it sounds cliché, but all the sound just drowned out and me and ‘T’ just hugged.”
Northeast’s plan had been to allow Fyffe the first nine outs, then swap her out for Presley McGinty. Fyffe assumed that’d remain the case, just as she assumed Crofton would be champing at the bit to swing at her.
The Cardinals (17-3) hadn’t seen her pitch in three years, when they lit her up at the end of the game for a loss. On Wednesday night, Fyffe remembered that day. She remembered the tendonitis in several places that followed and swiped her sophomore season in the circle. And she remembered every one of her nine wins leading up to this one.
Her curveball hadn’t worked as well as she’d liked on those another nights. Smoke trailed it this time, along with her changeup. Fyffe dealt two strikeouts and allowed only one hit by her ninth out.
“That dog fought all day,” Hart said. “I told her, ‘You’re going until you’re not feeling good.’ And she was feeling good.”
Northeast pitcher Kayleigh Fyffe reacts after recording a strikeout to end the fifth inning Wednesday against Crofton. (John Gillis/Freelance)
Fyffe allowed five hits but struck out five and walked none. She’d never thrown faster. She’d never felt better.
“I was honestly shocked when he didn’t take me out, but I was flying off the mound,” Fyffe said. “And I used that energy to build myself up.”
Just as the Eagles had hoped, Northeast (15-1, in-season county champs) jumped Cardinals ace Lynsie Herman early and often. After suffering a collision on Chesapeake’s basepaths on Friday, Herman wasn’t fully back to perfect health, per coach Sarah Bible, and felt dizzy beforehand.
“She threw a lot of first-pitch strikes,” Hart said. “And we weren’t waiting long.”
Sophomore Madison Burris put Northeast ahead in the first inning with a single and doubled the lead the same way in the third. Castle and Jones hit triples, while Jenna Burroughs and McGinty smacked doubles. In the fourth and fifth, Burroughs, McGinty and Carleigh Canada pelted Crofton with run-scoring hits.
In response, Crofton’s capable fielders lagged to make plays, and Herman, who’d just deftly held county titan Chesapeake to one hit a few days ago, could not recover. The ace shook her head in frustration as her finer pitches missed the strike zone. After a long circle conversation in the fifth inning, Bible relieved her.
“Marley’s throwing a good, low 60 ball too. We got two strong pitchers. We just gotta get our hitting on track,” Bible said.
Herman and her fellow batters didn’t help their own cause. Crofton stranded runners until the top of the sixth, when it already trailed by five. Connor doubled; Jasmine Daubert plated her. And then, with only one out, the Cardinals’ bats quieted again.
“It took too long to get our bats going,” Bible said.
But even as Northeast celebrated its final out and victory, the Cardinals did not surrender. Stokes remained on first base for several minutes while her coaches pled to the first-base umpire. According to Bible, Weiland’s foot was not on the bag when Stokes crossed it. Per Hart, it wasn’t even close. But the game ended.
“You can’t take anything away from Crofton. They didn’t quit,” Hart said. “Of course, we were talking about walking her, walking in the run. That would’ve drove them crazy.”
Northeast won’t just be bringing home a pile of gold medals and the fourth county plaque in program history. Hart made one promise.
“It cost me a little bit,” Hart said. “They get to glitter me up and paint my hair tomorrow.”
Crofton — 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 — 1 5 0
Northeast — 1 0 1 2 1 0 X — 5 9 4
2B: CR — Connor; NE — Burroughs, McGinty. 3B: NE — Jones, Castle. WP: Fyffe LP: Herman
