Warriors turn to doubles for Antietam title

Tennis

Boonsboro’s girls team wrapped up the MVAL Antietam title on Wednesday with a 3-2 victory over Clear Spring.

The Warriors (15-1, 13-1) are the only team to beat the Blazers (14-2, 11-2) this season, winning both matches 3-2. While Clear Spring had the edge in singles with Megan Crowl (15-1 at No. 1) and Miranda Kearney (16-0 at No. 2), Boonsboro countered with its three doubles teams — Alice D’Alauro and Erin Scally (16-0 at No. 1), Sarah Colgan and Ashlyn Hawbaker (16-0 at No. 2), and Hannah Froehlich and Cindy Poling (14-1 at No. 3) — and they carried the Warriors to the championship.

Clear Spring’s No. 1 doubles team of Ashlyn Long and Bethani Jenkins (14-2) — whose only two losses are to D’Alauro and Scally — gave the Warriors’ top team a scare Wednesday by winning the first set in a tiebreaker. But D’Alauro and Scally roared back to win the final two sets easily, and Boonsboro’s other two teams won in straight sets to secure the title.

The Warriors are 5-27 in singles matches and 47-1 (including one forfeit win) in doubles this season.

* The race for the boys MVAL Antietam title is going down to the wire between Williamsport (15-2, 12-2), Clear Spring (14-2, 11-2) and North Hagerstown (13-2, 10-2).

Williamsport has finished its Antietam schedule and went 1-1 against both the Blazers and Hubs. That assures the Wildcats at least a share of the title.

Clear Spring and North also split their two matches against each other, which makes a three-way tie for the league title a likely outcome.

The Blazers finish their Antietam schedule at Smithsburg (7-7, 7-6) on Tuesday. Clear Spring swept the Leopards 5-0 in the first meeting.

The Hubs finish their conference slate with matches at home against Brunswick today and at South Hagerstown (2-11, 2-9) on Tuesday. North swept both the Railroaders and Rebels earlier this season.

* The Washington County Public Schools Tournament will be held next Friday and Saturday at North Hagerstown.



Baseball

Just call the MVAL Antietam the “Bat-n-Bash” conference this year.

As individual earned run averages push into the stratosphere, the collective team ERAs bear out the fact that offenses are spouting runs everywhere.

In Antietam games, none of the Washington County teams are averaging fewer than seven runs per game.

Boonsboro and Smithsburg are averaging seven runs per game. South Hagerstown is averaging eight, Clear Spring and North Hagerstown are at nine and Williamsport is at 10 runs per game.

Reversing the coin, none of the teams are allowing fewer than seven runs per game, with Clear Spring up at 11. Boonsboro and Smithsburg are giving up 10 a game, South is allowing eight, Williamsport 7.5 and North seven.

And you wonder why games last two-and-a-half to three hours?

Tournament seeding

The MPSSAA baseball draw will be held Wednesday, with Tuesday the final date on which games played count toward teams’ win-loss records for seeding purposes.

In Class 1A West, Williamsport (12-4) should get a high seed. Mountain Ridge and Northern Garrett each have just two losses.

In 2A West, North could get a top-four seed without anymore losses. Rockville is 12-2, and at last look, Wheaton and Century also both have four losses.

In 3A West, South is among a pack of schools that include Quince Orchard, Kennedy and Blake as high-seed potentials.

Individually speaking

Big numbers keep pouring out of Martinsburg’s Zach Stolipher and Zach Woolcock.

Through 26 games in which the Bulldogs have posted a 22-4 record, Woolcock is the area leader with 11 home runs — two ahead of Clear Spring’s Dylan Stouffer. Woolcock also has 45 RBIs and has scored an area-best 51 runs on 50 hits and 13 walks. Stolipher has driven in 48 runs.



Softball

After finishing second to Catoctin in the MVAL Antietam last season, Smithsburg (13-3, 11-2) assured itself of finishing one spot better as league champions with a 9-1 victory over Williamsport on Wednesday.

The Leopards’ victory, combined with North Hagerstown (9-6, 8-4) beating Catoctin (12-3, 9-3), clinched the title for Smithsburg.

Even if Catoctin wins out and the Leopards lose to Clear Spring (10-6, 7-6) on Tuesday — the Blazers just beat Smithsburg 7-2 this past Tuesday and have won six of seven games — Smithsburg’s two victories over Catoctin earlier this season would break the tie and give the Leopards the title.

While Smithsburg has suffered losses to Boonsboro and Clear Spring, the Leopards took care of business against Catoctin (a 6-4 win on April 4 and a 6-5 win on April 27) and North (a 13-7 win on April 6 and a 3-2 win on April 29), beating its two top challengers twice each.



Track & Field

The second annual Jack Griffin Mid-Atlantic Prep Track & Field Classic will be held June 10-12 at North Hagerstown’s Mike Callas Stadium.

More than 200 athletes from roughly a dozen states competed at last year’s meet, which again is sanctioned by USA Track & Field.

Early registration ends May 15.

For information, visit the event’s website at www.midatlantictrackclassic.com or contact meet director Wayne Kretzer at coachwk86@aol.com or 301-739-1366.

* The MVAL Antietam championships Monday at Smithsburg featured several exceptional performances by Washington County athletes, especially on the girls side.

Five of the girls events were won with Tri-State-best marks this spring, including three by North Hagerstown — 4x200 relay (1:45.24), Emily Ward in the 1,600 (5:27.99) and Beth Wagner in the 300 hurdles (46.70).

The other two were achieved by Smithsburg’s Jonelle Jerwick in the pole vault (11 feet) and Boonsboro’s Abby Duncan in the 400 (58.94).

On the boys side, North’s Anthony Winter became the first sprinter in the area to crack 11 seconds (fully automatic timing) in the 100 this spring with his winning time of 10.99.

* The Washington County championships will be held Thursday at South Hagerstown, beginning at 4 p.m.

— Assistant sports editor Andrew Mason and staff writers Dan Kauffman and Tim Koelble contributed to this week’s prep notebook.