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Sports

Ketch Silences Wolverine Bats

South County junior shuts out West Potomac

In her first career varsity start, South County junior Kyra Ketch tossed a complete game shutout against West Potomac on Friday night, as the Stallions cruised to a 10-0 win.

Ketch found herself in trouble in the first inning after hitting the leadoff man and then loading the bases. She was able to wiggle out of the jam unscathed, setting the tone for the rest of the night.

This year South County is shooting for its fifth straight district title, and with only two returning starters from last year coach Gary Dillow is hoping that the best is yet to come.

"We're so young," said Dillow. "This is a very surprising result this early in the season."

With a man on second in the third inning, center fielder Julia Kastner put the Stallions on the board with her second home run over in as many games.

"We got crossed on our signs and gave her a screwball," said West Potomac Coach Craig Maniglia. "It was supposed to be an outside curve."

West Potomac pitcher Morgan Maniglia never recovered from the mix-up.

"It's all in my head," said Morgan. "I get really rattled easily, which is bad, but that home run really just shut me down. I need to work on that."

Morgan was eventually pulled from the game in the fifth inning.

In the bottom of the third South County experienced a bit of a scare after a line drive hit by Maggie Grady struck Ketch in the shin. Ketch immediately went down on the mound where she remained for a few minutes. She had a limp for the rest of the game, but managed to stay in.

"I generally work them both," said Dillow when speaking about his two-person pitching staff. "But Kyra was pitching so well there was no way I was going to take her out. She certainly upheld the pitching legacy for South County tonight. She pitched her tail off."

"I was relived that I could still play," said Ketch about the injury. "I didn't want to stop pitching."

West Potomac was able to string together a few hits and actually loaded the bases again in the fourth inning, but they just couldn't bring the runners home. Through four innings the Wolverines had left nine on base.

"We were swinging a lot out of our shoes and trying too hard to get that hit," commented Morgan. "But this is history and we are definitely going to grow from this."

Kastner was 3-for-4 with the homer and three RBI.

South County is now 2-0 and their next opponent is Lake Braddock.

West Potomac is 1-1 and plays Annandale next.

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