The Thomas Dale Softball Team finished their regular season undeafted with a 20-0 record. This picture was taken after winning the district title.

For the Thomas Dale softball team, it truly was a magical season. In what could be the first time in the school’s history, the softball team finished their regular season undefeated, clinching the district title with an impressive 20-0 record.

“This hasn’t been done before by our girls that I know of,” says Dennis Jones, softball coach at Thomas Dale. “I had an idea when the season started that we would win the district, but to win every game was just phenomenal. A lot of our young players stepped up and did really well. We had good defense, great pitching and a lot of senior leadership.”

However, their Cinderella season came to a crashing end as the Knights lost 3-0 last Tuesday night to the Deep Run Wildcats in the Central Region quarterfinal match.

“They played against a caliber team,” says Jones. “This was the first time going to the regional competition for all of these girls, so I think that it may have shocked them a bit. We weren’t getting any hits and weren’t playing sound defense, and in the end, it was the errors that killed us.”

The most costly error for the Knights came early in the game. With Deep Run courtesy runner Marianne VanMeter on second in the top of the second inning, Deep Run shortstop Brooke Blankenship shot out a line drive that rolled between the legs of Thomas Dale center fielder Christy Barron, allowing VanMeter and Blankenship to score on the play. The Knights were never able to rebound from the runs, earning only one hit throughout the game.

“We had a very rough game,” says Barron. “We weren’t playing our game at all. We weren’t hitting, so we made her [Deep Run pitcher Heather Lewis] look better than she really was.”

Freshman shortstop Logan Tollison felt similarly about the game.

“I never thought that we would go 20-0, so that was great, but we had higher expectations than to lose in the first round,” says Tollison. “I was surprised. I knew with the first error that that wasn’t the way that we usually played.”

Despite Tuesday’s loss, Jones is proud of the girls’ accomplishments this season. Aside from finishing undefeated, several members of the team also earned individual awards.
Freshman pitcher Lacey Waldrop was named the district’s Pitcher of the Year and seven girls – Brooke Howard, Paulie Figueroa, Sam Barham, Lizzy Martin, Austin Shornak, Alexa Tuck, and Waldrop – were named to the first team All District.

“All of the girls are very hardworking and I’m real pleased with the way that these girls have played this year,” says Jones. “We will have eight girls returning next year and our JV team only lost one this year, so I think that we will have another great team next year. They may be a fairly young team, but they are very experienced and know the game well.”

For Barron, she was especially grateful to accomplish more than just an undefeated season.
“Prince George was our goal to beat and we beat them three times,” says Barron. “It was great. I’m just proud of how all of us played this year.”
 
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