D6 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 , 2022
FROM STAFF REPORTSCoach Bridget Bowles Kemp has
the benefit of choice.
Her Tuscarora softball team has
two dominant pitchers, juniors Lil-
lie Wools and Lindsey Mullen, who
have helped the Huskies steamroll
to a 19-0 record — the program’s
first undefeated regular season.
The pair have combined to
strike out 222 batters and allow
just eight runs in 109 innings.
Wools has thrived on off-speed
pitches en route to a 1.07 ERA;
Mullen sports a 0.20 ERA built on a
devastating rise ball. The defense
has helped by sporting a .976 field-
ing percentage.
If Wools starts and Mullen fol-
lows, batters are faced with an
abrupt change in speed and loca-
tion.
“It’s so hard to adjust from sit-
ting on a change-up to then try
chasing a rise ball right with Lind-
sey,” Kemp said.
The inverse is just as difficult
when Mullens starts; batters try to
catch up to her rise ball only to
then have to recalibrate for Wools.
As the Huskies enter the play-
offs as one of the top teams in
Virginia, Kemp seemingly can’t go
wrong with whom she decides to
start and use in relief.
“It’s going to depend on who
we’re playing,” Kemp said. “It’s go-
ing to depend on what the team’s
feeling... how we perform [field-
ing] in practice.”
— Varun Shankar
Lacrosse
Though the Paul VI Pantherswere disappointed after losing in
the Virginia Independent Schools
Athletic Association Division I
championship game, they left
Richmond on Saturday morning
with confidence.
In reaching the VISAA title
game for the first time, the Pan-
thers gained belief that they can
compete with the top teams in the
D.C. area — and in the United
States.
Two days before its 11-6 loss to
St. Anne’s-Belfield in the title
game, Paul VI defeated national
power St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes for
the first time in the semifinals.
“We showed against St. Ste-
phen’s what’s possible,” Coach Rich
Hayden said. “They executed our
game plan exactly as we needed to.
If we would have had that same
level of execution [Saturday], I
think certainly it’s a closer game.”Typically an afterthought, Paul
VI (18-5) reached this year’s Wash-
ington Catholic Athletic Confer-
ence semifinals and posted the
best record in the Chantilly pro-
gram’s history. In its previous full
season in 2019, Paul VI finished a
win above .500.
Players cried on the sideline af-
ter Saturday's defeat, but the team
expects to return eight starters
next season.
“Coach always tells us to just
work to get 1 percent better every
day,” Hayden recalled defender
Bailey Gurley telling teammates
postgame.
“We did that this year. Every day
we worked to get a little bit better,
and look where we are.”
— Kyle MelnickSoccer
It had been 20 years sinceThomas Jefferson had won a dis-
trict title, but heading into this
postseason there were plenty of
signs this could be the team to end
the drought. Most importantly, it
had the talent. It also had the
experience, going 7-1 in district
play in the regular season. To ce-
ment their legacy in program his-
tory, all these Colonials needed to
do was execute.
With a win over Hayfield on
Friday, the Colonials (12-4) earned
that district title. The Hawks had
been the only National District
team to beat Thomas Jefferson
during the regular season, making
the championship game a good
measuring stick of how far it had
come.
“We knew that, with the talent
we had, this was the year if we
could stay focused and stay
healthy,” Coach Prem Singh said.
“We had a goal, and we made it
happen.”
The Colonials lost just two sen-
iors from last year’s team and
added a group of talented fresh-
men, but this season got off to a
rocky start. The Colonials started
1-3-0, dropping three straight by a
combined score of 8-2. But the
team found its footing in time,
developing the chemistry neces-
sary to capitalize on its talent.
Since that stretch, the Colonials
have won 11 of 12.
“It wasn’t a problem to get this
team to jell,” Singh said. “These
girls from T.J. are extremely re-
sponsible, extremely hard-work-
ing. They connect easily. That’s
why we’ve been so successful.”
— Michael ErrigoGIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL NOTES
Undefeated Tuscarora is well-equipped on mound
KATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Lillie Wools has used off-speed pitches to compile a 1.07 ERA,
helping lead T uscarora to its first undefeated regular season.enced players, Vaughn thought
this team could be good, but he
didn’t imagine it would venture as
far as it has into the realm of
“special,” he said. The more the
Terps win, Vaughn said, the more
the staff believes they’ll get it done
each time. Now there are not-so-
far-fetched dreams of Omaha,
where the final eight teams play in
the College World Series.
Vaughn hasn’t had much time
to appreciate what his team has
accomplished. After lifting the Big
Ten regular season trophy, the
Terps already had shifted their
focus toward more. Soon, that title
will be listed on the outfield wall,
but there are other spots where
2022 could earn a permanent
place in the shadow of the Shell.
The other short lists celebrate
NCAA regional and super regional
appearances. But maybe, these
players hope, Maryland will have
to add an entirely new category.
“There are whispers,” Ramsey
said, “where it’s like: ‘We could
definitely do this. We could make
a run at it.’ ”years later, Vaughn hoped to take
over the program.
“I wanted it really bad,” Vaughn
said. “I thought we could do what
we’re doing right now. I thought
this was very feasible here. It
didn’t feel like a pipe dream.”
Vaughn experienced a steep
learning curve his first season,
finishing the 2018 campaign 24-- When he assessed what went
wrong, Vaughn realized he tried to
copy the approach of Szefc, who
let his assistants essentially serve
as the head coaches of their area.
“I really like being hands-on,”
Vaughn said. “I feel like Year 1, I
kind of pulled back and was just
kind of: ‘Hey, let’s manage every-
thing. Let’s CEO this a little bit.’
And it’s just not my personality.”
Since then, the Terps have grad-
ually built toward success they
hope is sustainable. After the cor-
onavirus pandemic cut short the
2020 season, Maryland lost in the
regional final last year — the first
time the team made it there under
Vaughn.
With solid pitching and experi-
es, was named the conference’s
player of the year Tuesday.
Alleyne, a Philadelphia native,
knew Zach Jancarski, who played
for the Terps until 2018, so he
started following the team in
eighth grade. During the recruit-
ing process, Alleyne connected
with the people in Maryland’s pro-
gram, and he said he wanted to be
somewhere he liked “what they’re
building rather than just having
cool facilities.” Alleyne committed
to Szefc, and the coach left Mary-
land just before Alleyne’s class
enrolled. He stuck with Maryland
anyway. He already felt comfort-
able with Vaughn, who, at 29, was
promoted to the top job.
Vaughn and Szefc had worked
together at Kansas State. As a
volunteer assistant coach not far
removed from his playing career,
Vaughn nearly became the hitting
coach at a community college, but
then Szefc, a former Kansas State
assistant, asked Vaughn to be part
of his staff at Maryland. Vaughn
accepted the job before he saw the
campus. By the time Szefc left fiveweekend starters Jason Savacool
and Nick Dean, sparked confi-
dence heading into this season,
and a high-scoring offense has
turned into the ideal complement.
The Terps average 9.3 runs, and
they’ve scored at least 12 in each of
the past five games entering the
conference tournament.
“I’m just sitting in the dugout,
and it’s like, bam, home run, bam,
home run,” Ramsey said. “It’s like,
‘Oh, my goodness, this again.’ It’s
awesome to see. These guys are
absolutely mashing the ball. It’s
almost like video games for some
of these guys.”
Sophomore shortstop Matt
Shaw has emerged from an early-
season slump to slug 21 home
runs, and he’s battling teammate
Chris Alleyne, a center fielder
with 22, for the Big Ten lead.
Alleyne hit just 14 home runs in
his first four seasons at Maryland.
He attributes his newfound power
to offseason work with hitting
coach Matt Swope and better vi-
sion because of new contacts. Al-
leyne, who also has stolen 23 bas-shiny? Sure,” said Vaughn, who
was named Big Ten coach of the
year Tuesday. “But we’ve won two
regionals in this. This is who we
are. This is us. It doesn’t matter if
we’re in a $20 million stadium;
this has to remain who we are.”
Vaughn developed what he
calls the pillars of the program —
ownership, toughness and a
growth mind-set. Those drive re-
cruiting, and then once players
reach campus, they inform every-
thing else. Stars haven’t filled each
recruiting class, but some of the
recent high-schoolers who landed
at Maryland rather than a storied
program have had standout ca-
reers while fueling the team’s rise.
Ryan Ramsey, a junior left-
handed pitcher, threw a perfect
game last month — the second in
school history and just the 20th
nine-inning perfect game in Divi-
sion I history. The feat led to a
flood of texts, custom T-shirts and
an invitation from the Orioles to
be honored at Camden Yards in
Baltimore.
Ramsey, along with fellowdecades-long stretch of irrele-
vance during his five-year tenure.
The Terps had never reached the
NCAA super regionals until Szefc
led them there in 2014 and 2015.
Szefc departed for Virginia Tech
after the 2017 season, handing the
program to Vaughn.
With an NCAA regional prob-
ably heading to College Park, the
Terps have an opportunity to go
further than the school ever has.
This is new territory for the Terps,
who have never hosted games in
the NCAA tournament. With a
68-year-old stadium that seats
2,000, Maryland plans to use
bleachers to increase the capacity
to 3,000, improve lighting and
add an auxiliary location for me-
dia, according to Josh Kaplan,
who oversees facilities for Mary-
land’s athletic department. The
school explored hosting games at
other nearby ballparks but decid-
ed to make its on-campus stadium
work.
“Do we wish we had bright and
MARYLAND FROM D1
Maryland baseball is having the best season in school history and wants more
BY KYLE MELNICKbaltimore — While coaching
boys’ basketball at Plum Point Mid-
dle School in 2015, Peter Kerwin
was impressed by a sixth-grader at
tryouts. Chad Connolly wasn’t the
most talented player, but he left
every practice with scraped knees
after diving for loose balls.
Kerwin, also the Huntingtown
boys’ lacrosse coach, decided then
that Connolly would help the Hur-
ricanes become a contender when
he arrived at the Calvert County
high school three years later.
With Connolly a senior, Hun-
tingtown realized that vision this
season as it reached its first 2A
championship game. But the Hur-
ricanes could not complete a per-
fect season Tuesday; they fell, 11-7,
to Kent Island at Loyola University.
“We talked about this as fresh-
men,” senior defenseman Koy
Greenwell said. “We expected it.
Obviously, not the result that we
wanted, but it’s awesome to put the
school on the map.”
After losing to Marriotts Ridge
by a goal in last year’s quarterfi-
nals, Huntingtown players were
confident they could compete with
any Maryland opponent. In South-
ern Maryland, where interest in
the sport doesn’t compare with its
popularity in Baltimore-area coun-
ties, many Huntingtown athletes
grew up playing football and only
learned lacrosse in high school.Huntingtown (19-1) accom-
plished more milestones this sea-
son, defeating Anne Arundel
County contender South River in
April and then Easton in the state
semifinals last week. The Hurri-
canes received a boost when Con-
nolly, a midfielder who signed with
Navy, returned in late April from a
labrum injury he suffered in foot-
ball season. He had expected to be
sidelined until June.
“It was good news getting out of
physical therapy much faster than
expected,” Connolly said. “Being
able to come back and help my
team was everything.”
Huntingtown fell behind by
four against Kent Island (19-1) be-
fore Connolly put the Hurricanes
on the board with 4:13 remaining
in the first half. Midfielder Austin
Welch, who will play football at
West Virginia, dominated the face-
off circle. The senior went through
the motions learning lacrosse his
freshman year of 2019 before be-
coming enamored with taking
faceoffs the next season.
The Hurricanes took advantage
of that possession in the fourth
quarter. With 8:19 to go, attackman
Nate Duvall cut Huntingtown’s
deficit to one. Kent Island then
scored with 5:55 remaining and
twice more in the final 90 seconds
to hold on.
“Huntingtown’s not going
away,” Kerwin said. “[The seniors]
have given the younger group kind
of the recipe of what it takes. We
have a lot of confidence that our
juniors can fill that void and show
that we come back and we’re better
than we are this year.”MARYLAND 2A BOYS’ LACROSSE FINALH urricanes like their futureafter almost-perfect seasonKENT ISLAND 11,
HUNTINGTOWN 7BY KYLE MELNICKbaltimore — After their Mary-
land 1A semifinal win Friday, the
Southern boys’ lacrosse seniors
spent the 75-minute bus ride from
Havre de Grace to Harwood remi-
niscing about the 2017 state
championship game. As middle
school friends, many of them
watched the Bulldogs claim their
first championship from Steven-
son University’s bleachers and
began aspiring to secure their
own trophy.
Soon after they accomplished
that objective with a 14-7 win over
Fallston on Tuesday night for the
1A championship, they sprinted
to their classmates in Loyola Uni-
versity’s bleachers. Defenseman
Jackson Germann asked a friend
to throw his iPhone onto the turf
so players could begin taking
celebration photos before the
medal presentation.
The Anne Arundel County pro-
gram’s second title and first since
2017 was a long time coming for
its seniors.
“Our motto this year was
‘They’re on the tracks, and the
train’s coming through,’ ” senior
attackman Ryan Gregoire said. “It
didn’t matter who they put in
front of us; we’re going to go out
and give it our best.”
Coaching one of the county’s
smallest schools, Brendan Brace
often reminds his players to
maintain their confidence after
falling to larger schools. This
spring, Southern (14-5) lost bydouble digits to powerhouses
Severna Park and Broadneck —
defeats Brace believes prepared
the Bulldogs for weaker postsea-
son competition.
Players maintain perspective
by viewing photos in the school’s
locker room of the 2017 team,
which won after the Bulldogs lost
in their previous four title game
appearances. After a 15-10 loss to
Smithsburg in last year’s semifi-
nals, Southern players featured a
screenshot of that score on their
phones’ lock screens.
“We were so confident,” said
senior midfielder Garrett Simi,
who scored four goals against
Fallston (15-4). “We knew from
the beginning of the season we
had it. I just knew I had to come
out firing this year, and that’s
exactly what we did.”
Against Fallston, last year’s
champion, Southern built a 5-1
lead by the first quarter’s conclu-
sion. The Bulldogs jumped on all
of their Harford County oppo-
nent’s mistakes. When a Fallston
player botched a pass midway
through the second, Gregoire
scooped the ball as it hit the field
and scored one of his four goals
on a breakaway seconds later.
Possessing a 9-4 halftime edge,
Southern continued to dominate
64 seconds into the second half,
when defenseman Jackson Sey-
mour, from midfield, passed to
defenseman Cody Hitchcock near
the top of the crease for a goal.
The Cougars wouldn’t come with-
in five goals for the rest of the
game.
“We wanted it more tonight,”
attackman Carter Moon said. “We
came out firing right away and
never took our foot off the gas.”MARYLAND 1A BOYS’ LACROSSE FINALBulldogs meet longtime goalwith program’s second crownSOUTHERN 14,
FALLSTON 7
BY JACOB RICHMANWith Chesapeake tied with
Thomas Johnson in the Maryland
3A baseball semifinals Tuesday, a
freshman delivered the big hit for
the Cougars.
Sean Carroll smacked a two-
run double just over the left field-
er’s outstretched glove in the third
inning to put Chesapeake ahead.
The Cougars didn’t look back, go-
ing on to win, 6-2, at Bob “Turtle”
Smith Stadium in College Park.
Second-seeded Chesapeake
(19-3-1) will play top-seeded Tow-
son (17-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday in the
Cougars’ first state championship
game appearance since 2017. The
game will be at Regency Furniture
Stadium in Waldorf.
It seemed fitting that a first-
year player came through for
Chesapeake, which is led by a
first-year coach. Jeff Young, a
Chesapeake alumnus and long-
time assistant, said bringing Car-
roll to the varsity level at the
beginning of the season was an
important decision early in his
tenure.
“Early on I was like: ‘Well, I
guess I’m going to live and die
with Sean. I’m going to be hooked
to the side with him, and we’re
going to ride him out,’ ” Young
said. “I just couldn’t be more
proud of him. We’ve asked a lot of
him, and he’s delivered.”
The Cougars also got big contri-
butions from one of their most
experienced players. Senior pitch-
er Nick Karls (9-0) starred on the
mound and at the plate Tuesday.
The Morehead State commit
struck out 10 in 6^1 / 3 innings and
also hit a pair of doubles — to lead
off the game and then i n the
fourth. He scored after each one.
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve
grown up watching Chesapeake
baseball,” Karls said. “It’s a dream
to go out there and do that for
everyone in our community.”
Chesapeake scored first but
then fell behind 2-1 to Thomas
Johnson (19-6). After the Cougars
tied the score at 2 in the third,
Carroll’s big swing gave them the
lead for good.
Chesapeake’s bats were partic-
ularly hot in the clutch: All six ofthe Cougars’ runs came with two
outs.
Being able to come through in
those situations is a big reason
Young and his squad are optimis-
tic about handling their final op-
ponent for the season.Reservoir knocked out
No. 5 Reservoir (19-5) made just
its second appearance in the 3A
semifinals in program history, but
a 2-1 loss to Towson was the end of
the line for the Gators.
Senior catcher Ben Davis wasthe only Gator to score Tuesday,
tying the game in the fourth in-
ning after hitting a single to right
field. It was a pitchers’ duel be-
tween Towson’s Jackson Huck
and Reservoir’s Jordan Peguese
throughout.
A first-inning triple by Justin
Mealey had the Generals ahead
early, and another run in the fifth
was the decider.
Reservoir defeated Howard
County champion River Hill in
the region finals during its deep
playoff run.MARYLAND 3A BASEBALL SEMIFINALS
Freshman’s big hit sends Cougars to the title game
CRAIG HUDSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Chesapeake w ill take on Towson in its first appearance in the state championship game since 2017.CHESAPEAKE 6,
THOMAS JOHNSON 2