Varsity Softball Stung By Hornets in Extra Innings

Despite solid pitching performances, the Chantilly Varsity Softball team lost a heartbreaker to the Herndon Hornets by the score of 3-2 Tuesday night in Herndon.  Emily Gembarowicz pitched the first 5 innings of the contest, allowing only 2 hits while recording 7 strikeouts in the process.  Rachel Taft relieved Emily in the sixth inning and matched her 2-hit, 7-strikeout performance over the last 4 innings.

Herndon took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, but the Lady Chargers countered in the fifth inning when Alex Sallberg led off with a single, stole second, reached third on a Herndon error and scored on Jen Loh’s bunt single to knot the score at one apiece.  The score remained 1-1 until the eighth inning when Bryanna Kerbuski crushed a triple to center field, driving in Aimee Knecht from second base to give the Lady Chargers a 2-1 lead.  Aggressive base running enabled Herndon to not only score the tying run in the bottom of the eighth inning, but also the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning as a Herndon base runner attempting to steal third base slid into Laura Conaghan as Tori Doherty’s throw was arriving from behind the plate, causing the ball to ricochet off of Laura’s glove into left field and allowing the Herndon base runner to subsequently cross the plate to end the game.

The Lady Chargers return home Friday night to exact revenge against the Robinson Rams at 5:00 pm in the first game of a Varsity/JV doubleheader.