Northern Collects Its Wits, Title, Too

When Northern softball coach Robert Radford called a timeout in the sixth inning yesterday, he asked his team to breathe.

They had been here before -- well, not exactly the Maryland 3A title game at the University of Maryland's softball field -- but they had been in jams before. And this one needed to be like all the other jams the scrappy Patriots had worked out of this season.

Though Northern held a two-run lead, a defensive miscommunication, follow-up single and intentional walk helped Atholton load the bases with two outs. But like so many times before, the Patriots got out of the jam, and they responded in the top of the seventh with five runs that sealed a 7-0 victory. Northern won its fifth state title and the school's first since 2001.

"This morning no one on the bus was breathing, either," Radford said. "They were just so geared up. I told them to relax, that we've done this before and that they knew what to do. They had the confidence to handle it, and then to respond offensively and leave no chance of a comeback was great."

The Northern batters found their swings in the seventh against the Raiders (17-6).

Right fielder Chelsea Niemann singled to lead off, then stole second base. Pinch hitter Elisa Orlandi followed with a single and steal, and catcher Kristin Schalk sent a sacrifice fly to right that scored Niemann and took the pressure off the Patriots.

"We had one last chance to put some runs on the board, and we all wanted our shot to score, so we just drove the ball," said Patriots left fielder Caitlin Keppler, who was 2 for 4. "We wanted to score some runs to help [freshman pitcher Kaitlyn Schmeiser], because she's helped us out so much this year."

All told, the Patriots (16-7) scored five runs, tallied six of their eight hits and snagged two of their five stolen bases in the top of the seventh.

Schmeiser, who struck out nine and gave up three hits, had two outs and Atholton runners on first and second in the bottom of the seventh when Schalk saw that the Raiders runner on first was taking a big lead. Schalk thought the situation was perfect for a pickoff, and when the next pitch flew into her catcher's mitt, she whipped the ball to first base.

"I knew I could get her with the big lead she was taking," said Schalk, who got the Northern scoring started in the first when she reached home on a passed ball.

"I'm pretty confident in my arm, and they had a pretty good batter coming up. After everything we worked through in this game, I didn't want to risk having them score. Being able to get that shutout made this even better."