The Saline Reporter
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Successful season closes with 4-0 loss to Monroe
Saline ends season at 28-11 after 4-0 loss in district opener
By Brian Cox, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: June 7, 2007
Under a hazy, near-noon sky last Saturday morning, Megan Townsend's catcher's gear -- the leg guards, chest protector, and mask -- lie forgotten in a pile. Nearby, members of the Saline varsity softball team comforted one another with hugs after a 4-0 loss to Monroe in the first round of Division 1 District playoffs.
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For Townsend and the five other seniors on the team, their high school softball careers had come to a close.
"I'm real proud of my senior class for battling all season," said Townsend. "There's nobody else I would want to have spent my senior year with."
Coach Dawn Whitford went from player to player giving hugs and trying to evoke a laugh here and there.
"It's not the loss of the game that's hard," she said. "It's the loss of my seniors. This has been a great team. We wanted to keep the season going not for the wins but to keep the team going."
To keep the season going, however, the Hornets needed to figure out Monroe's star pitcher, Jessica Irwin, whose riser and herky-jerky delivery has confounded countless hitters this season. Last year, she recorded 31 strikeouts in a 17-inning game against Taylor Kennedy.
The Hornets did their best to lay off Irwin's riser, but she still struck out 13 and allowed only three base runners.
The first runner was senior Alicia McCormick who walked in the second.
The other two were Townsend, who worked Irwin to a walk in the bottom of the third and in the sixth broke up the no-hitter by stroking a 2-1 pitch up the middle. Four pitches later, she stole second, becoming the only Hornet to reach scoring position. Townsend also gunned down a Trojan runner trying to steal second for the third out in the top of the third.
"I wanted to finish my season strong if it had to end today," said Townsend. "I think I did that."
The Trojans jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first off a walk, a bunt that should have gone foul, a double, and a glancing line shot down the first-base line.
With one out and runners at first and third, the damage could have been worse, but second baseman Katie Chapman turned an unassisted double play to end the inning.
After another Trojan double in the top of the second, Saline's senior pitcher Lisa Brophy, who struck out three and walked four, held Monroe hitless into the sixth.
In the sixth, the Trojans took advantage of a walk, an error, and a sacrifice fly to bring in a fourth run.
The Hornets came closest to mounting a comeback in the sixth when freshman Emily Ouellette led off with a near perfectly placed slap shot that hung in the air just long enough for a diving Monroe shortstop to nab it. Townsend singled.
And then on the first pitch, Alissa Robison cranked a shot to left center that would have surely been an RBI-double if the centerfielder hadn't made a fine running catch at her ankles.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Hornets went down swinging -- nothing less than Whitford would expect.
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