ND GIRLS TURN BACK ST. PIUS, WIN TITLE

Notre Dame's girls softball team played just one game on Saturday, but they completed an impressive sweep.

With a 4-2 victory over St. Pius X 4-2 in the championship game of its own Softballfest, Notre Dame swept its own weekend sports festival for the first time. Earlier in the day, Notre Dame's boys prevailed 1-0 over Cape Central in the championship match of the Soccerfest.

"These girls had a great tournament," said Notre Dame coach Chris Janet. "We played good softball and beat two good teams, especially St. Pius. We're really proud of this team."

Notre Dame (5-3) jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead, aided by two costly errors by the team from Festus.

Tracy Kluesner led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second on a bunt single by Stacey Seyer. A throwing error by St. Pius catcher Kelli Dean on a dribbler in front of the plate by Mika Williamson allowed Kluesner to score and Seyer to reach third. With runners on first and third, another throwing error by the catcher on a steal attempt allowed Seyer to come home with the second run.

St. Pius (5-2) got one back in their half of the first inning when Chris Collins singled and later scored on a double to right-center by pitcher Meaghan Crow.

In the second inning, the Lady Bulldogs got a big two-run triple from Seyer to make the score 4-1. And that's the way it stayed until the bottom of the seventh inning.

With their last chance to pull even or go ahead, the Lady Lancers pushed across one run and ended the game with the tying runs on second and third bases.

"We dug ourselves a hole early, but we had the tying runs on base at the end," said St. Pius coach Barb Charboneau. "What more can you ask for? I'm very pleased with the job my team did. We had a good week of softball."

The Lady Bulldogs, who had six hits, used a gritty pitching performance by Williamson and a flawless defensive effort to overcome the Lady Lancers.

Williamson went the distance allowing six hits, fanning five and issuing four bases on balls. A nasty change-up was her out pitch and kept the St. Pius hitters off stride all day.

"Mika is just a competitor," said Janet, "she battled and battled. She really wanted this game badly."