After playing their designated home games at nearby Baggett Park each of the previous two seasons, the Chopticon High School softball team is looking to christen its refurbished home field with a 3A state title this spring and the Braves have won their first 12 games to start the campaign.
Last Friday afternoon, April 19, in a clash of two perennial SMAC powers who could face one another two more times this spring, Chopticon (12-0) pulled away from visiting Northern for an 8-4 victory. The Braves broke a 2-2 deadlock by scoring four times in the home half of the fifth with junior Cassidy Wolfe punctuating the inning with a two-run homer that chased Northern starting pitcher Danielle Sypolt.
“I really wasn’t looking for anything in particular,” Wolfe said. “I just wanted to get a good pitch to hit and make good contact. I knew when I hit it that it had a chance to go out. It’s great being able to play home games on our school field this year. When they told us we would be playing home games here this year I was so pumped up.”
Several innings earlier, Chopticon junior Carrie Hayden had lifted the Braves to a 2-0 lead when she smacked a solo homer in the bottom of the third. Hayden would also single and score in the Braves’ four-run fifth when the hosts broke it open. Like Wolfe, Hayden had not known the feeling of playing an actual home game at the school until this spring.
“It was a lot different playing at [Baggett Park] the last two years,” Hayden said. “So, I was glad when they told us we could play home games here at the school. Northern is always one of our toughest games, so it felt great to beat them. But we could see them again a few more times.”
Two days earlier in their annual meeting against longtime rival Huntingtown, Northern squandered an early 3-0 lead then rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh for a 6-5 victory. Last Friday afternoon at Chopticon, a squad that it could potentially face twice more this spring, Northern fell behind 2-0, drew even two innings later then was doomed by the Braves’ four-run fifth.
“We’re always excited to play against really good competition,” said Northern senior shortstop Reagan Powell, who has already signed her National Letter of Intent to attend Bucknell University. “We faced some really good teams this week [Huntingtown, Crofton, Chopticon and Urbana] and we’re hoping that we see Chopticon again.”
Chopticon coach Kevin Cioppa is again enjoying the chance to have his squad play home games on the school field this spring, but he was also very appreciative of having a ready alternative site the previous two seasons.
“Listen, I can’t say enough about what [St. Mary’s County] parks and recreation did for us the past two years,” Cioppa said. “They really went out of their way to make sure we had home games there. It’s great to be here again and we always look forward to playing teams like Northern. They’re talented and they’re very well coached and this was a tight game.”
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