St. Mary's Ryken Closes In on Rival

Two years ago, St. Mary's Ryken advanced to its first Washington Catholic Athletic Conference softball title game before losing to O'Connell. Last year, the Knights lost to O'Connell again in the WCAC semifinals, despite winning one of their two regular season meetings.

After winning its first eight games by a combined 91-7, though, Ryken will have to wait for a shot at O'Connell, the five-time defending WCAC champion. The teams' game Monday was rained out, and initially rescheduled for yesterday, before Ryken officials asked that the game not be played on Holy Thursday.

"This would be a great year to do it," said first-year coach Scott Kuhns, who moved to the area from Reading, Pa. "We definitely have the pieces in place. I've heard so many great things about the O'Connell program and I want to see what they're all about."

Now, they will play at Ryken on April 24, before ending the regular season at O'Connell on May 4.

"We'll know then how good we are," said O'Connell Coach Tommy Orndorff, whose team is 10-0. "They had a great year last year."

Ryken has built a talented roster over the past few years, led by shortstop Erin Leddy, one of the Knights' six seniors. Juniors Stephanie Dameron and Katie Delapaz are splitting the pitching very well, and freshman utility player Hannah Gray reached base in her first 13 plate appearances.

Over at Episcopal

As Episcopal won four of its first five games this season, Maroon sophomore Nancy Walker threw three no-hitters. It was easy to miss them, though. Episcopal's opponents scored 11 runs in those three games.

It comes with the turf of playing for the Maroon. While Walker is a rare travel-ball player, most of her teammates seldom pick up a bat outside of the school season. According to Episcopal Coach Guy DeZarn, more than half of the school's 200 girls try out for lacrosse in the spring.

"She'll throw a no-hitter, but girls will still reach base all sorts of ways," DeZarn said. "She's matured a lot, but all pitchers can be a little temperamental. In order to take care of that, our seniors have really helped her out."

None more so than Caroline Moncure, a first-team all-state selection last year at shortstop. Knowing Walker needed a strong backstop, DeZarn moved Moncure, who will play ext year at UNC Wilmington behind the plate to help Walker control the game as much as possible.

"That was just a huge sacrifice," DeZarn said of Moncure, who entered yesterday's game against National Cathedral batting .500. "It kills her not to be playing shortstop. But we have no margin for error." . . .

The Cavalier Classic, hosted by Spalding, is scheduled for Saturday at Randazzo Park in northern Anne Arundel County. With 12 schools playing two games apiece, the round-robin event is annually one of the best midseason collections of softball talent in the area, and this year is no different with Chesapeake, Broadneck, Spalding and Northern highlighting the field.