CHANTILLY—- A year of expectations came full circle for the Lee-Davis softball team on Friday afternoon. Three-hundred and sixty-four days earlier at Westfield High School, Confederate pitcher Kelly Heinz threw a prefect game in the 2010 AAA state semifinals to advance Lee-Davis to the state championship game in softball. Even though Lee-Davis fell to McLean the following day, the Confederates were immediately considered a virtual lock to return this season, having lost only one player to graduation. But so much returning talent added pressure rather than relieve it.

  “I feel like last year we weren’t really expected to be there,” said Lee-Davis head coach Jackie Davis. “We knew that we were going to be good but we weren’t really expected to be there. This year the expectation was that we were going to be here.”

  And a return to the state championship was more than just a matter of living up to expectations. Last season, every person in the Lee-Davis dugout left Westfield knowing that without errors they could have claimed the title. A return to this year’s championship game would provide the opportunity to erase that feeling.

  “I want to finish it,” Davis said. “Last year I left here very upset. I knew that we had beaten ourselves with costly mistakes. I just want to make sure we leave here (Saturday) and that doesn’t happen again.”

  The Confederates took care of the first step towards the goal in dramatic fashion with a 7-1 come from behind win over Grassfield in the semifinals.

  A repeat of last year’s perfect game saw a quick exit for Heinz when she walked the second Grassfield batter she faced. Heinz picked up three strikeouts to escape without damage, but she struggled early.

  In the top of the second Grassfield took advantage. Heinz started off with a walk of Seirra Shook and a successful bunt from Hannah Burmeister put two runners on with no outs. A sacrifice bunt from Kaitlin Springer advanced the runners and Brittany Walters sacrifice to second allowed Shook to score.

  The Grizzly lead put Lee-Davis in a situation they had only seen once this season; trailing their opponent. The only other team to take a lead on the Confederates this year was Patrick Henry, which handed the C-feds their only loss of the season.

  Facing their second deficit, there were questions as to how they would react.
  “We know that we’re a great hitting team,” said junior right fielder Casey Price. “You have to score one to win anyway so we weren’t too down on ourselves.”

  It helped that Lee-Davis learned early on they could make contact on hurls from Grassfield pitcher Lacey McDougall. Lee-Davis exited the bottom of the first as the result of three consecutive groundouts. The second inning brought a walk, a single, a fielder’s choice, and a ground out.

  The Confederates knew it was only a matter of time before the hits started coming.

  “We knew we’d get a rally and that’s what we did,” Price said.

  In the bottom of the third, Lacie Madison reached on an error by McDougall moved to third on a single from Haleigh Cottrell and knotted the game at 1-1 on a wild pitch.

  With one out, Heinz helped her own cause with a double to center. Priced followed her example by drilling a double to left center that drove in Parent and Kinsee Stonebreaker, who was pinch running for Heinz.

  Ryleigh Hawker’s RBI single up the middle drove in Price for a 4-1 lead.
  “It was kind of good for us to know what it feels like to come from behind and know that we’re not going to get down in that situation,” Heinz said. “It’s always good to be able to work in different situations and this is definitely one of them for us.”

  The Lee-Davis offense picked up where it left off in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs, Cottrell singled up the middle and Parent singled to right. Cottrell then came home on Heinz’s second double of the night.

  Not to be outdone, Price hit her second double of the night to drive in Parent and Stonebreaker for the 7-1 margin.

  According to Davis, the offensive spark of Heinz and Price developed from a late season roster change. “We actually flip-flopped them in the lineup one or two weeks before playoffs started,” Davis said. “I knew that teams might try to pitch around Kelly and I wanted somebody in strong behind her. Casey’s a heck of a hitter and she showed it tonight.”

  For Price, stepping up on the biggest stage is simply a payoff. “You’ve got to step up,” she said. “A lot of hard work in practice and you’ve played 25 games to get us ready for this and it’s time to do it.”

  Holding the 7-1 lead, it was all Heinz down the stretch. The Gatorade Virginia Player of the Year finished off Grassfield having given up one hit and recording 12 strikeouts.

Grassfield…...... 010 000 0 — 1 1 2
Lee-Davis…...... 004 300 x — 7 10 1
McDougall and Breneman; Heinz and Cottrell