Northern Closes In On Repeat State Title

Patriots Advance To 3A Semifinals: Northern 3, Huntingtown 1

Northern sophomore Tayler Schaefer knows the psychological edge her team's potent offense has on games. On Friday, Schaefer's bat gave the Patriots a huge advantage almost right away in the Maryland 3A South Region final.

Schaefer's two-out, two-run double in the top of the first inning relaxed her teammates and put pressure on arch rival Huntingtown. With those factors working, sophomore pitcher Kaitlyn Schmeiser took control and got a boost from catcher Kristin Schalk to lead Northern to a 3-1 victory, keeping alive its hopes to repeat as 3A champion.

The Patriots advance to the 3A semifinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bachman Sports Complex in Glen Burnie.

Northern has benefited from a terrific lineup that, unlike many others, is a threat from top to bottom. Friday's game was the perfect example; all nine Patriots reached base as they pounded out seven hits.

But the two first-inning runs were especially critical, because they put Huntingtown on the defensive immediately.

"That first inning, you have to show them you mean business," Schaefer said. "To jump on a team early, it's such a big change in momentum."

Momentum was a crucial element in this game. Northern grabbed the lead early on Schaefer's hit and extended it in the third inning on a two-out single by Ashley Hawkins to score Brittanie DiMichele for a 3-0 lead.

"That was our M.O. all season," Northern Coach Robert Radford said. "We'd get a couple early ones."

But after Huntingtown pulled to 3-1 in the bottom of the third on a double off the fence in left-center by Jess Warner that scored Harley Hill, Huntingtown, which had no trouble scoring this season, gained confidence against Schmeiser, who did not pitch in a 13-12 loss to Huntingtown during the regular season. The Hurricanes stranded five runners in the first four innings Friday.

In the fifth, Huntingtown had runners at the corners with one out. Standing on first, Warner tried to steal, but Northern catcher Kristin Schalk paid her no mind. Schalk immediately threw down to third base, where Abby Orlandi applied a perfect tag to pick off the Huntingtown runner and crush the Hurricanes' rally.

Instead of having two runners in scoring position with one out, Huntingtown had a runner at second and two down. The next batter popped out to end the inning.

"Pickoffs are extremely important," Schalk said. "We went from being real nervous to seeing their hopes go from high to pretty far down."

Northern Coach Robert Radford said that Schalk "gets it done. They should respect her arm. We were just waiting for the right time. It was a huge out."

Huntingtown was deflated after that play.

"It gave us a shot at changing a lot of the momentum in the game," Hurricanes Coach Mike Johnson said. "I thought we had a chance to really put a lot of pressure on them."

After that, it was just a matter of Northern closing it out. It helped, Schaefer said, that the Patriots have played as defending state champions all season.

"It's added a little more intensity to us," she said. "Those teams didn't want to see us win again."