Final-inning collapse eliminates Blazers

All season long, the Blair Blazers had waited for their chance to do damage in the Maryland state softball playoffs, and their opportunity came tonight. For six innings, the Blazers played stellar ball and looked on their way to a solid win.

The seventh was a different story.

The Richard Montgomery Rockets (13-4) got all three of their runs in the final inning and mounted a stunning rally to upend the Blazers (15-4) at home, 3-2, and abruptly and prematurely ended what had been a great Blair season.

In the top of the inning, trailing Blair 2-0, RM star Heather Riley hit a scorching two-out triple to the right-center field wall that scored two runs and tied the game. The next batter, Sarah Meleney, singled to drive in Riley, the winning run. RM, who will play Whitman on Monday, set the tone in the rally when Katie DiFato drew a leadoff walk.

Blazer manager Louis Hoelman lamented about the walk that started the inning that ended Blair's year. "I just wish we'd have gotten that leadoff batter in the seventh out," he lamented. "Walking her put real pressure on us."

Annie Denenberg was on the mound for Blair, and up until that point in the game, she had pitched out of pressure well. Just one inning earlier, with a one-run lead and Candace Thompson on third for the Rockets, she got Janine Lux to line back to her, and then threw to third to retire Thompson to end the inning unscathed.

In the top of the second, the Rockets loaded the bases with no outs, but Denenberg struck out a Rocket and was able to get out of that inning without any damage sustained.

Up through the first six innings, Hoelman was proud of his team and confident of the way they played. "I was on cloud nine," he said. "It felt so good, it was the best feeling I've ever had coaching."

That feeling made a total 180-degree turn in the next inning. Denenberg, starting in her first playoff appearance ever, began to slow down, throwing six balls in a row at one point in the inning. Hoelman said that Denenberg "stopped throwing hard."

"It was the biggest situation she had ever been in," he said. "And she got loose with her pitches."

Riley, the Rockets' star cleanup hitter, made Denenberg pay for being loose with her gapper to the wall that scored DiFato and Sara Capotosto. "Riley's great," Hoelman said. "Its no surprise to me that she hit that great gap shot when [Denenberg] lost speed on he fastball."

Blair only had one senior this year, Emily O'Brien, and the core of their team (and both starting pitchers) are sophomores. Hoelman said that their lack of big game experience up to this point matched up with RM's veterans created a problem for the Blazers.

"The age difference was big; they were more confident than we were and [Denenberg] was and they got hits off her and they hung in there because of their experience that we didn't have," he said. "RM's a tough team and they responded well."

Denenberg allowed 11 hits and three walks tonight. Six of those hits and two of the walks came in the final two innings. She didn't strike out any Rockets after the second inning, and had four up to that point.

This game "was the biggest situation she's ever been in," Hoelman reasserted, "and she slowed mentally."

Blair got their lead off of unearned runs. In the bottom of the second inning, Sarah Rumbaugh got caught in a rundown between third base and home plate. The RM catcher, Allison Stewart, threw the ball away into left field and Rumbaugh scored easily. Michelle Linford tacked on to their Blair lead in the sixth when she scored on a Thompson wild pitch.

O'Brien, the only player who will graduate for Blair, was still teary-eyed over a half-hour after the final out, as were many other Blazer players and coaches. But she stayed positive after her final game ended stunningly, saying, "I wish we could have won, but I have no complaints."

For the rest of the team, their window to win a state title hasn't closed. Instead, Hoelman said, it can act as a learning experience. "We've got to remember what this loss felt like and not do it again."

Blair already looked defeated heading into the bottom of the seventh. Claire Lieberman and Sara Pierce were retired on bunts, Rumbaugh singled, and Anna Szapiro popped up to second base to end the game. None of the Blazers hit a ball out of the infield in the inning.

Thompson was stellar on the mound for the Rockets, allowing two unearned runs in seven innings, while striking out nine Blazers. She allowed just five hits, and in the teams' last meeting in April, she struck out 11 Blair hitters. "She's great," Hoelman said.

As the Blazers walked off the field, many looked down and demoralized, not just because they lost, but because of the way they lost combined with the season that came to an abrupt end. This team was the third seed in the 4A West division, but the lottery seeding system somehow put them up against a battle tested RM squad that had just one more loss than Blair in the regular season.

"The system's not real good," Hoelman said.

For Blair, Rumbaugh had two hits, as did Michelle Linford. Denenberg contributed the other hit for the Blazers, a single. Meleney's RBI capped a 4-4 night, all singles. Riley's triple was her only time on base tonight, and Thompson also had a triple for the Rockets.

The loss was a tough way for the Blazers, who showed so much promise, to go out this season. A game that was looking so good for so long went awry in almost a blink. The state championship talk will have to be shelved for another year.

Winning one playoff game will be a start.