CARLETON − RaeAnn Drummond was nervous.
The junior pitched in plenty of big games this season, but the pressure was turned up for Saturday’s Division 2 District tournament that her team hosted. Airport softball coach Jess Irwin tapped Drummond to pitch both the semifinal against Jefferson and the final against Milan.
“I told her I wanted her to pitch both games because we knew she would be our best chance at being successful,” Irwin said. “We have two main pitchers, but we do a lot of charting and sheets that we look at to see the tendency of hitters. We talked a lot about those tendencies and where we needed the ball.”
Where the Jets felt they needed the ball was in Drummond’s hands.
“I was kind of scared at first,” Drummond admitted. “But everybody gave great encouragement when I was out there.”
Drummond more than held up her end of the bargain with back-to-back complete game victories to help Airport capture its first District championship in more than a decade.
Airport defeated Jefferson 5-0 in the semifinals and then toppled Milan for the first time this season 4-1 in the title match.
“We’ve really been talking a lot about locating the ball lately,” Irwin said. “We’ve developed her changeup a little more and she did a good job hitting her spots today. She did what we needed her to do.”
Milan coach Kirk Davis was equally impressed with Drummond’s poise in the circle. When the two schools met back in April, the Big Reds hit Drummond hard for three home runs in a 4-1 victory.
“She (Drummond) did a real good job today,” Davis said. “That was the second time we saw her. We beat her the first time, but today was different. … The change of speeds by Drummond was just enough to keep us off balance.”
It came down to confidence, Drummond said. Despite two losses to Milan earlier this season and a 15-year title drought for Airport, the Jets needed to come into the game knowing they could win.
“We’ve been struggling with our attitude,” Drummond said. “But we came out today with the biggest attitude and I think that’s what helped us win this game. The encouragement from the dugout was so good. I’m proud of it. Once one person gets up high, everybody follows that. We just need a leader to put us out there.”
Drummond was one of those leaders. So was junior Raschel Weaver, who took charge with her bat.
Weaver’s double in the second inning drove home the first two runs of the game and ultimately was the winning hit.
“Raschel has been struggling a little bit with the bat, but when she came up the leftfielder was playing shallow and she hit a great shot to leftfield,” Irwin said. “I knew once we got moving that we’d keep rolling.”
Airport added two more runs in the third inning and limited Milan to five hits. Olivia Tilley and Brenna Baker had two hits apiece to pace the Jets.
“Milan is a tough team,” Irwin said. “We lost to them twice, but the second game was pretty close, so we knew if we came in and played our best game that we could hang with them. … Every time we’ve played them, we’ve cut our strikeouts down. We told our kids that if we keep the strikeouts down and put the ball in play hard, we have a chance. They did that.”
Airport (22-13-1) advances to the Regional semifinals against Chelsea 2 p.m. Saturday at Trenton.
Hailey Knox finished 3-for-3 and scored Milan’s lone run in the sixth. Mariah Stines pitched a complete game and also went back-to-back Saturday, including a 17-6 victory over Dundee in the semifinals.
Milan finished the season 17-10 and graduates just two seniors: Madison Gray and Hailey McCleary.
“I’ve coached a lot of teams, but this is definitely one of the toughest,” Davis said. “We did not have a lot of players. We were thin, but these girls really took care of business all season and battled through a lot of aches and pains. It was impressive to see what they did.”
Jefferson’s loss to Airport in the semifinals ended the Bears’ season at 24-13.
Jefferson trailed only 1-0 heading into the seventh inning.
“The game plan was to hang around as long as we could and hope for the ball to bounce our way late, unfortunately it didn’t,” Jefferson coach Chad Liptow said.
Jefferson will have to do some rebuilding next season with seven seniors – Emmi Liptow, Rylee Dunn, Kayce Maitland, Samara Liparoto, Jillian Baker, Olivia Peare, and Samantha Ledger – on the roster.
“We did the best we could with what we had,” Liptow said. “We say goodbye and thanks to seven seniors who found a way to go 50-26 the last two years.”
Dundee fell behind 7-1 against Milan in the semifinals before battling back with five runs in the top of the fifth, including a three-run triple by Kennedy Irwin. Milan responded with five of its own in the bottom of the frame to put the game back out of reach.
“Our thing all year has been defense,” Dundee coach Mickey Moody said. “We’re just not aggressive enough on defense. We play too much on our heels. We gave them too many outs. … I think if we had played better defense it would’ve been a closer game.”
Dundee closed the season 25-12. Alyssa Amerhein is the only departing senior on the Vikings roster.
“These girls have to learn from this,” Moody said. “They have to get it in their head they need to be more aggressive defensively. Once we become a better defensive team, we’re going to be hard to beat.”