by Marshal Manlove
editor

The State Softball Championship

  At eleven o'clock Saturday morning, the last championship day of the high school season began with a repeat title for the Buccaneers of Caravel Academy. The Bucs won 4-0 in the softball final over the William Penn Colonials behind yet another shutout by Jackie Homiak and the sparkling Buc defense.
  The lack of defense on the other side proved to be the difference in this game. In the top of the fourth inning, the Bucs scored three times when two consecutive errors set up two consecutive squeeze plays for runs.
  The Bucs had been trying to bunt a few runners over in the first few innings but weren't executing. With the two runners on second and third in the fourth, head coach Steve Baker sent Homiak up to hit for the designated hitter, Danielle Austin, to "lay one down."
  Homiak wasn't in the starting batting order because of a sore toe. But this was the championship game and the go ahead run was just 60 feet away. 

Baker said," The suicide is part of our game. We work on that alot. We think if we can get some speedy kids over to third that we can push that ball up the first base line. If they play their first baseman back, they just can't throw you out."
  Leadoff hitter Megan Richardson was next, and a great candidate for a third consecutive bunt, but she ripped a single instead scoring Homiak for the third run of the inning and that was all that Homiak needed to win. Baker said, "We looked at another bunt because the firstbaseman wasn't adjusted but Jackie was at third base still with the injury and I looked down and she didn't have her slider on so we didn't want to risk her." 
  William Penn (17-5) managed to get two runners aboard the basepaths in the second and fifth innings, but couldn't keep from becoming the 18th Homiak shutout victim of the season.
  Richardson said, "We had a great feeling about this game and we were so excited and pumped up. We just come out and do our best and we know we'll be fine."
  Homiak said, "They had confidence in my bunting ability, but Danielle could have done it too. We work really hard on bunting, but it can still be tough to do it in game situations. We came through when we needed it. We knew fromt he scrimage (in Spring training) that they had a few power hitters, Erica LaBar, Michelle Whalen, and I talked with my coach who calls the pitches, Mike Salony. I wasn't going to give them anything down the middle of the plate. They hit the ball but our defense made the plays."
  Baker said, "This is team is real young, real good. It's easy to coach a team like this. We have a great coaching staff; Mike Salony calling the pitches all year, we had 18 shutouts; Dana Hicken our hitting coach had our kids ready to go; Jeff Campbell the dugout coach had the kids ready to go; it's a whole team effort. It feels really good."

For more see  2000 State Softball Tournament

The State Baseball Championship

At 2 o'clock it was over to Frawley stadium to watch the Mt. Pleasant Green Knights win the baseball championship game with a 7-1 win over the defending champion St. Mark's Spartans.
The Spartans were never in this game. Mount scored three runs in the top of the first, and three in the second to open up the Spartan grave.
Brent Rogers went 4 for 4 with two RBI, stole three bases, and scored twice for the Knights, who won the first Mt. Pleasant team championship since the 1981 football team won the state title.
Rogers singled, stole second, and advanced to third on a error on a bad throw on the attempt to catch him stealing. Daryl Holcomb was then hit by a pitch. Both runners scored when Kevin Leach singled and reached third as St. Mark's made two throwing errors on the one play trying to catch runners advancing.

Scott Henning (7-0) went the distance for Mount and drove in the third run in the first with a sacrifice fly. He pitched his way into near trouble when he became wild in the third inning. With one out and the bases loaded, he walked cleanup hitter and opposing pitcher Tom Cochran (6-1) to drive in the only Spartan run of the day.
But Henning picked Kevin Maloney off of second base for the second out, and then walked Al Blanchard to load the bases again which would have driven in the second run of the inning. Henning said, "We worked on that play everyday, it seems, since we were freshman, and it payed off big today."
Geoff Ashton then launched a deep fly to center, but it was tracked down by Jared Savage to end the inning and the threat.
  Mount stole seven bases in the game despite the best efforts by Tom Cochran. He picked five runners off of first, but four of them managed to slide in safely to second after poor throws to the bag.
Knight coach Rob Limmina said, "We told the guys to run with the first movement and hopefully either beat the throw from the first baseman or get a big enough jump where it was going to be difficult for the catcher to throw them out."
Limmina said," It's exciting, words just can't describe it. I'm happy for the kids and the coaching staff because I know how hard they've worked, and I'm happy for the school. There is nothing better than the first one."
The keys to the Green Knight success this year were pitching and defense, Limmina added. "They had great work ethic. They were unselfish. They had personal goals but never put them before the team goals.They wanted this and wanted to make this a reality, and that's what they did. This is a special group of kids. It's going to be difficult to let them go."
Mount Pleasant (20-2) becomes the first Blue Hen Conference Flight B baseball champion since Claymont in 1973 and prevented St. Mark's from becoming the first back-toback champions since Concord in 1981-82.

for more see 2000 State Baseball Tournament

The State Girl's Lacrosse Championship

At 6:00 it was over to the University of Delaware for the anitcipated match between the two-time defending champion St. Andrew's Cardinals and the Hillers of Tower Hill.
All-American Heidi Pearce was limited to just one goal by the Hillers and that was the key to the 7-5 win for the new champs from Tower Hill.
Center Hiller Casey Owens was player who drew the coverage assignment of Pearce, who scored over 100 goals in this season alone. Owens also took every faceoff with Pearce and managed towin 60 percent of the draws, an overlooked factor in this game.
  Tower held Saint to just two goals in the first half., neither by Pearce.
  Owens also contributed a first-half goal for Tower, who scored six of their seven goals in the first half.
  Maggie Giddens started the scoring for Tower two minutes into the game and was tied four minutes later by Hannah Osier.
  Both teams played a ball control offense and tight checking defense and the game remained tied at one for the next ten minutes when Jill Hocutt was awarded an 8-meter direct shot, which she converted for the second goal.
  Freshman Emma Wallace scored for Saint on an assist from Courtney Cordeiro for the other first half goal.
  After Owens scored her goal, a Saint time out only resulted in two more Tower Goals as Austin Gee scored and and Kerry Sallee scored on Hocutt's second assist of the half.
  Meredith Goeller picked up two second half goals in the first 11 minutes of the second half, but still Pearce hadn't made a mark. Tower goalie Katie Ireland stepped up to challenge in the net making seven saves in the game, one a head save (and a beauty) on a Pearce shot.
  Hocutt scored her second direct shot with 11:36 to go, and then Tower clamped down. When Pearce finally did score, it came with just four minutes to go, and the fundamentally sound Hillers play keep away to secure their first state championship.

pictures coming....

for more see 2000 State Lacrosse Tournament

The State Girl's Soccer Championship

At 7:00 it was over to Newark High to watch Tom DeMatteis become the only coach to take a boy's ang a girl's soccer team all the way to the top one minute after Ashley Dilworth blasted a 30 yard game winning goal in a 3-2 win over A.I. duPont.
The Spartans became the first Delaware team to beat A.I., the four-time defending champions, since 1996.
Just four minutes into this game, the Tigers were on a pace to score 80 goals in the the game after Kristin Goldrick and Kristin Hanna scored for A.I.
DeMatteis said, "I would have bet my house that we were more prepared thanthat coming into this game."
The Spartans settled down and bear the 20 minute mark Dilworth delfected a Michelle Huynh-Ba pass off the crossbar for their first goal of the game.
Two-thirds of the way through the second half,Dilworth had a nasty collision with the Tiger's Danielle Nourie and laid face down on the turf. DeMatteis said, "When I got to here she was out (cold), but just as I said to the trainer she was out, she recovered."
As the trainers were attending to Dilworth, co-captain Megan O'Donnell pulled her team aside and forcefully reminded her team that they weren't going to leave that field without the number one trophy.
Dilworth shook off the stars floatingaround her head and returned to action on the next whistle.
With ledss that eight minutes to go, Sophomore Shannon Bradbury took a Spartan corner kick and found Huynh-Ba's head near the fron of the goal. Huynh-Ba directed the pass in for the game tying goal, and it appeared as if the championship was going into overtime as it did last year between these same two teams.
With about a minute to go, the Tiger's Katie Mazzio electrified her fans when she blasted a goal. But the play was blown offsides, and overtime was on its way again.
  The clearing pass down the right wing was chased down by Dilworth and Kristin Hanna. But Hanna slipped and fell leaving Dilworth wide open and all alone on goal. Drom 30 yards away her powerful right leg connected with the leather sphere and sent it rocketing off the crossbar and down over the goal line to cause bedlam on the other side of the bleachers.
Dilworth didn't exactly remember scoring the goal partially because of the excitement and partially because of the blow to her head. She did remember who she was and what her team's goal was though. "We were not coming off that field without that trophy. We said it coming in, and we said it on the field. Now we have it."
Huynh-Ba, a sophomore, said, "It took some time to get into this game, but we did it and we reached our goal."