THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 8, 1995 TAG: 9506080584
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATTI WALSH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
History repeated itself for Booker T. Washington in Wednesday's Group AAA state softball quarterfinal at Princess Anne High School.
The Bookers, who played near-flawless ball in last week's Eastern Region tournament, committed six errors in an 8-1 Monacan victory.
``It's the same thing that's happened during all of our losses,'' Booker T. Washington coach Paul Palombo said. ``We did not make the plays.''
The Chiefs, however, did.
After booting 10 plays in Friday's 13-3 loss to Mills Godwin in the Central Region championship game, Monacan played errorless ball behind pitcher Katie Moss, who scattered four hits.
``A sign of a good team is that they come back from adversity,'' Monacan coach Keith Daniels said. ``The defense executed and we had great pitching. I rest my case.''
The Bookers, however, had only half the needed ingredients.
Pitcher Donna Self struck out 10 and yielded just five hits.
``When you have so many errors, it doesn't matter how many you strike out,'' Self said.
Self blanked Monacan on a walk and two hits over two innings before the defense fell apart.
In the top of the third, Monacan's Lindsay Wright took a base on balls and stole second. Moss followed with a bunt, but a botched throw got her to second and scored Wright.
Moss stole third and scored when Self mishandled Michelle Meadows' squeeze attempt. Cleanup batter Meredith Gompf then hit a RBI single to left and scored when Heather Morris reached on an another error.
Self struck out two and made a play to first to end the inning.
With two out and Blair Sherwood on in the Bookers' half of the third, Self doubled over centerfielder Gompf's head for the Bookers' only run.
``Donna pitched an incredible game,'' Palombo said. ``She kept us around.''
The Bookers couldn't buy another hit until the fifth, when Sherwood got her second single of the game, but the Chiefs were already up, 7-1.
``We were just too anxious to hit it,'' said Booker T. cleanup batter Sharon McClannan, who was held hitless.
Monacan collected three hits in its half of the fourth and made the Bookers pay for two more errors that resulted in three runs.
Michele Falatovich led off with a short fly to right-center and reached second on Moss' sharp single to left. The pair scored when Sherwood, fielding Meadows' grounder in center, erred on her throw to the plate and catcher Cheryl Haynes overthrew third. Gompf laid down a perfect bunt, sending Self's throw to first and Meadows home.
Lindsay Wright pushed one more across for the Chiefs in the sixth on Gompf's single to right.
``They were very fundamentally sound,'' Palombo said. ``It was going to take an incredible game to beat them.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Monacan's Kim Furr slides safely into third as the Bookers' Bonnie
Phelps applies the tag a split-second late. Monacan eliminated
Booker T. Washington, 8-1, Wednesday.
by CNB