With two opening-round victories, the top seed and undefeated Bishop O’Connell Knights (16-0) have reached the championship game of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference girls softball tournament.
Three-time defending champion O’Connell won both of those high-school contests on its home field at Tuckahoe Park. The Knights blanked the Bishop Ireton Cardinals, 13-0, behind 14 hits in the quarterfinals, then downed the St. Paul VI Catholic Panthers, 8-0, in the semifinals.
For the third straight season, O’Connell was scheduled to play the St. Mary’s Ryken Knights of Maryland in the title game. O’Connell takes a 70-game winning streak that spans four seasons into that contest.
The team has won 26 conference-tournament crowns in program history.
Against Ireton, Bri Lencz started the game and worked four innings to get the win. Annie Van Dyck pitched the final two innings of the six-frame, slaughter-rule contest. The two combined for a two-hitter.
Van Dyck also added a two-run single, and Lencz had two run-scoring singles.
Abby Bond belted a solo homer and had a single, and Ella Fletcher added a two-run shot and had a third RBI. Callie Lissenden had two hits, including a triple, and a sacrifice fly.
Gigi Payne had a sacrifice fly and RBI double, Ari Clark doubled and singled and M.J. Melvin and Emma Prykanowski doubled.
Against Paul VI in the semifinals, Lencz threw a seven-inning, 88-pitch one-hitter complete game with six strikeouts. With the bat, Lencz doubled, had two hits and three RBI.
Clark had two hits and an RBI, Bond added a two-run double, Payne and Van Dyck singled and Lissenden had a sacrifice fly.
