Westfield Softball Clinches Regular Season District Championship

The battle to be seeded first in the Concorde district softball standings came to a dramatic climax Tuesday.  played solid through five innings before giving up two runs in the sixth, and another in the seventh, allowing to clinch as regular season district champions with one more game to play.

Chargers sophomore pitcher, Alex Sallberg, allowed two runs in the first, before settling in and shutting down the Bulldogs' bats for four straight innings. She allowed only one hit in that stretch and retired ten straight hitters including the core of the Westfield lineup consisting of Jackie Martinez, Jessica McNamara, and now Carrie Otorba, who has been batting fourth in place of Frankie Martinez who broke her arm last week.

"She [Sallberg] was a difficult pitcher," said McNamara. "She was throwing a lot of drop balls inside and did fool us for a while, but those last two innings we finally caught on. If we play them in the tournament, I feel that we'll definitely be ready."

With a runner on first and one out in the sixth, Chantilly catcher, Tori Doherty, failed to pick off a first pitch steal by Alex Tenney. Sallberg went on to strike out Keona Gaines, but with Lexi Scoville at the plate, allowed another first pitch steal by Tenney to move her to third base. On the 2-2 pitch, Scoville crushed an RBI double over the head of Dani Almodiel, who was playing shallow left. The next batter, Caitlin Rudy, swung at the first pitch and sent a fly ball over the head of right-fielder Jen Loh, bringing Scoville across home plate and extending their lead to 4-1.

"Lexi's hit was huge," commented Westfield coach, Dean Ferington.

This makes the third year in a row in which Westfield, 13-4 (8-1), has won the regular season district championship, and even without star player Frankie Martinez, they look poised to repeat as district tournament champions as well.

Chantilly, 11-5 (5-3), remains one game ahead of Oakton in district standings and the loss to Westfield snapped a five-game winning streak in which Sallberg had been the starter.

"She [Sallberg] came off a shoulder injury last year and has been pitching really well for us," said Chargers coach Carmen Wise.

Over the past four years, Chantilly has grown together as a team and improved their regular season record each year. They had three wins in 2008, four in 2009 and six in 2010. The Chargers will lose only two senior players at the end of this year, and if they continue to improve as they have, next year they could be a fearful team to play in the Concorde district.

Coming into the game against Westfield, Chantilly had been fielding the ball cleanly and hitting pretty well, but, Tuesday, the team seemed a little flat infield and Bryanna Kerbuski had trouble making routine outs from the short stop position.

"We just have to stick together, get back to our game plan, and make things happen," commented Wise.

Scoville hit 1-for-3 with a double, a reached-on-fielders choice and an RBI. Tenney was 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and two steals.

Chantilly finishes out the regular season with games against Oakton and Herndon. Westfield's next opponent is Oakton.