Spalding returns to title form | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

The Archbishop Spalding High School softball team is headed to a familiar spot - the IAAM A Conference championship game.

After a one-year hiatus, the Cavaliers advanced to the title game with a 5-0 shutout of defending champion Seton Keough Thursday night. Spalding will face the winner of the IND/Mount de Sales semifinal contest for the conference crown on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Harford Community College.

The IND/Mount de Sales game Thursday was postponed.

Spalding pitcher Elaine Nescio was more than the Gators could handle, allowing only a hit to Michelle Campbell in the complete game victory.

The junior was just a hit away from a perfect game, with four strikeouts, one pop out and 16 ground ball outs.

The hit was the only ball hit in fair territory to leave the infield.

"I was just pitching what I was supposed to be pitching and doing my job," said Nescio. "They just hit the pitches I wanted them to hit, and my defense played absolutely incredible behind me."

The busiest member of the Cavaliers infield was third baseman Emily Weiman, who was seeing her first postseason action at the high school level. The freshman did not disappoint, as she amassed nine assists. At the plate, she accounted for two doubles, a triple, two RBIs and two runs scored.

"I've never had that many ground balls hit to me in one game before, so it felt good to make all the plays," Weiman said. "Offensively, I was really slumping the last three or four games. I just came back and hit the ball."

Weiman plated the second Spalding run in the first inning with her triple, which brought home Meghan Van Meter, who had doubled two batters earlier. Her fourth-inning double scored Van Meter again, who got on with a single. Weiman led off the sixth inning with her second double, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and crossed home on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Jean Sonni.

"That is a special kid," said Spalding coach Paul O'Brien of Weiman. "She plays on a very competitive 14-and-under club team and to come from 14-and-under ball and face some of the teams we have faced and to just succeed time after time, that is an accomplishment.

"What is most remarkable about her is she really has a nice, level head. She definitely has a maturity between the ears that is just not heard of for a kid that age. She is an impressive kid," O'Brien added.

While Weiman got the majority of action in the infield, senior shortstop Delaney Bell totaled three assists, with Nescio throwing two out at first and second baseman Van Meter and senior first baseman Casey O'Neill each getting one assist. O'Neill handled all the throws cleanly in recording 14 putouts.

Junior Andrea Catucci started the game with a double and later scored on Van Meter's double in the first. Weiman's triple made the score 2-0 after one inning.

Bell launched a double to lead off the third but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple. Van Meter followed with a single and went to second on a ground out by junior Jennifer Rindone. Next, Weiman doubled to score Van Meter and Weiman came home on an RBI base hit by Nescio to make it 4-0 after three.

The rest was up to Nescio.

Despite having only the four strikeouts, almost six fewer than her average, she had everything working to propel the Cavaliers toward A Conference supremacy again.

"I think they were really eager to hit me today," Nescio said of Seton Keough. "They were all fired up before the game. So they were jumping on the first strike that they got and it just happened to be my pitch that they were swinging at instead of their pitch."

The Cavaliers, 16-1 overall and 13-0 against A Conference opponents, defeated Mount de Sales 10-4 and 6-2 in the regular season and downed IND 4-3 and 5-0.

"It will be nice to get back to the championship game," said Nescio, who was a second baseman as a freshman when Spalding last won the title. "It will be good to have a chance to bring the trophy back to Spalding and to continue what we've been doing for the past 20 years."

Seton Keough (9-8) 000 000 0 - 0 1 1

Spalding (16-1) 202 001 x - 5 8 0

WP: Nescio. LP: Summers. 2B: SK - Campbell; AS - Weiman 2, Catucci, Bell, Van Meter. 3B: AS - Weiman. RBI: AS - Weiman 2, Van Meter, Nescio, Sonni.