File:Baseball 2018, freshman pitcher Ellen Stockman delivers to a Middletown batter from the Frederick News Post, April 19, 2018.jpg

Brunswick High School Girls Softball

Railroaders on the rise in softball By Joe Ferraro, Frederick News Post, April 19, 2018

MIDDLETOWN — Over the course of the season, Brunswick coach Kevan Rabat had seen so many late swings from opposing hitters.

So when hard-throwing freshman Jenny Harrison entered the pitching circle Wednesday, Rabat positioned center fielder Lexi Stone in the right-center field gap and left fielder Daisy Gardner in the left-center field gap. The way Rabat saw it, the probability of a Knights hitter completely turning around a Harrison pitch and roping it down the left-field line was very slim.

“If you want to beat us, then hit it over there,” Rabat said. “If you can, good for you. If you can’t, that works out better.”

Harrison showed why Rabat was as confident as he was, scattering just three hits while striking out six as the Railroaders beat the Knights 5-2 to complete a sweep of a doubleheader.

Harrison entered the game in the third inning, coming on in relief of freshman Allyssa Albright, who also pitched the final two innings of the Railroaders’ 6-4 win earlier in the day. She featured an effective riseball that Middletown hitters had difficulty squaring up.

“It finally worked, and I’m happy about that,” Harrison said. “I was struggling with it two games ago.”

That pitch, Rabat said, becomes that much harder to hit because Harrison doesn’t rely on it too heavily.

“She’s got a bunch of pitches — she’s got a drop-curve and a riseball and a change-up and a fastball,” Rabat said. “Most of these girls have four, five, six pitches. It’s crazy.”

As for Rabat’s alignment of his outfielders, Harrison is a big fan, saying “it makes a lot of sense.” Middletown’s Alyssa Arney, who tripled and scored in the Knights’ two-run first inning in Game 2, may have had her team’s hardest-hit ball against Harrison, a line drive to the gap in right-center in the fifth inning. But Stone barely had to move and recorded an out.

Middletown’s Morgan Giannoumis did take full advantage of the positioning of Brunswick’s outfielders in the sixth inning, hitting a fly ball to left that forced Gardner to range far over to her right. Giannoumis turned the hit into a double, but Harrison threw her out trying to advance to third on an infield single by Jordan Long.

Harrison is one of four freshmen who play big roles for the Railroaders (7-3). Another, Emily Stockman, hit a solo home run that cut the Knights’ 2-0 lead in half in the bottom of the first inning. She collected four hits in the doubleheader. Ellen Stockman, who pitched five innings in Game 1, tied the game with a run-scoring double in the third inning.

Then there’s sophomore leadoff hitter Abigayle Perry, a hyperaggressive baserunner who causes problems for opponents with her speed and her big leads off bases.

“She likes to play games on the basepaths,” Rabat said. “I’m always happy when she gets to third. I say, ‘OK, what can we do now?’”

That’s exactly what happened in the bottom of the sixth, when she reached third base on an error. With two outs, she took a big lead off third base, and after Middletown catcher Katelyn Remp caught a pitch and threw it back to pitcher Lexi Hofflinger, Perry bolted for home plate and beat Hofflinger’s throw back to Remp to score the go-ahead run.

Perry said she regularly studies the movements of the opposing pitcher and catcher whenever she reaches base, gathering information that may allow her to wreak havoc on the basepaths.

“I just paid attention the whole way around, and I got to third, and Coach said, ‘Why don’t we try to get home?’” Perry said.

Perry and four other players — Ellen Stockman, Emily Stockman, Albright and Zaidee Byrd — each had two hits in Game 1. Albright had the biggest hit, a two-out run-scoring triple to right that broke a 4-4 tie in the top of the seventh.

Brunswick took a 4-1 lead in the game but Middletown (6-5) strung together five consecutive singles by Arney, Hofflinger, Victoria McClain, Mikaylah Toms and Remp to tie the game.

Hofflinger went 3-for-4 in the game while McClain and Toms each had two hits in Game 1.

Middletown coach Charley Toms was especially pleased with the performances of the three pitchers he used — McClain, Hofflinger and Mikaylah Toms — especially considering the Knights played 11 innings the day before. While Middletown regularly put runners on base, Toms would have liked to have seen more timely hitting.

“We had a little bit of work to do here and there,” Toms said. “We’re getting to the point of the season where we have to fix those things.

“But Brunswick has a real nice team ... They’re probably the best team we’ve played this year.”