By Alan Goldenbach and Katie Carrera
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 22, 2008

For the second year in a row, Chesapeake's softball team tiptoed around the same trap in the 4A semifinals. Following a thrilling and emotional victory over Anne Arundel County rival Broadneck to win the 4A East Region title, the defending state champion Cougars entered the semifinals flat.

This time, unheralded Linganore put a scare into Chesapeake, but, once again, the second-ranked Cougars bit back. They scored five unanswered runs to hang on for a 10-4 victory at Bachman Sports Complex and advanced to the state final for the third straight season.

Chesapeake will play for its seventh state title Saturday at the University of Maryland at 6:30 p.m. against Sherwood, which defeated Eleanor Roosevelt, 3-0, in the evening's other semifinal. The Warriors gave Chesapeake its scare in last year's state semifinals, losing, 3-2. Sherwood is in the state final for the first time.

No Montgomery County school has won a title since Gaithersburg in 1999.

"We were aching to get another chance at them," Sherwood senior first baseman Kathy Holonich said. "We feel we could have and should have won states last year. This year, we lost a lot of players and people didn't expect a lot from us, so it feels really good to get here."

Sherwood (18-2) got all its offense in the bottom of the first inning, beginning with an RBI single by Holonich that scored Kelly Morrow. Shayna Popkin then scored on a groundout, and Jamie Karp drove in Holonich. That was plenty of support for junior pitcher Erin McMakin, who struck out 11 and allowed Eleanor Roosevelt (17-3) only one hit.

Meantime, on another field just a few yards away, there was plenty of offense between Chesapeake and Linganore. It wasn't a surprise coming from Chesapeake (23-2), which scored in double figures for the 12th time this season. The Cougars scored five times in the bottom of the second, capitalizing on two Linganore errors and a pair of hard RBI hits by juniors Amanda Montgomery and All-Met Lauren Gibson.

Linganore, making its second straight state semifinal appearance, finished 18-2.

It seemed very suspicious when Northern center fielder Chelsea Stern began her at-bat in the fifth inning trying to bunt. Stern had a .406 average coming into the 3A semifinal and usually relished swinging away.

But Stern and Patriots Coach Robert Radford had method behind their madness. The goal was to get one of Northern's star hitters to fool an unfamiliar defense, then smack the ball over their heads.

The plan worked to perfection. Stern hit a triple to left-center field that kick-started a five-run inning for the Patriots and propelled them to a 8-2 victory over Damascus (17-3) and their first trip to the 3A final since 2001.

The Patriots (15-7) rattled off 12 hits, seven of which came as a deluge in that fifth inning. Northern's freshman pitcher Kaitlyn Schmeiser struck out eight Hornets and went 2 for 4 at the plate with two RBI. . . .

Atholton Coach Maureen Shacreaw told her players on the bus yesterday that Franklin's perfect record meant nothing, that the Raiders would be the team that finally upset them and, over and over again, that the zero in the losses column meant nothing.

Whether her players believed it, Atholton (17-5) took full advantage of every mistake by Franklin (22-1). The Raiders jumped out to an early lead off three Indians errors in the first inning on their way to an 8-1 win for their first trip to the state final since 2001. They'll play Northern on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Maryland.

McDonough Coach Julie Snavely caught one of her freshman players starting to put the bats away. Not yet, Snavely reminded her, because anything could happen. The Rams are a superstitious team -- they didn't want to risk their first trip to the 2A final since 1998 by being cocky.

So the Rams (18-5) kept their bats out and watched as junior pitcher Melanie Mitchell performed her regular routine and struck out three batters in succession to end the inning and seal the Rams' 3-0 victory over Century (16-8) in the 2A semifinals.

Mitchell opened the game by striking out the first 10 Century batters she faced on her way to striking out 17 Knights in all. She gave up just one hit -- only the third she has allowed in the playoffs -- and she has yet to allow a run. The Rams will play Easton on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Maryland.