Dragons Softball beats Clarkston. Wins first District Crown since 2008 and faces Hartland next

Written Saturday June 1st, at 10:10 PM

It’s always hard to beat a team twice in one season, let alone three. 

It isn’t the team that they beat were projected to finish ahead of you once the season started and that team was named the Clarkston Wolves.

The eighth ranked Dragons (32-4) had to come from behind in the district finals to oust Clarkston 3-2 from the state playoffs. Lake Orion moves on to play Hartland next Saturday in the regional semifinals at Rochester.

The Dragons almost blew a 9-0 lead and had to survive an 8-1 run rally in the final two innings to beat Waterford Kettering 10-8 in the semifinals while the Wolves (24-10) beat Oxford 12-0 to get to the district championship game.

Lake Orion struck first with a base hit by Cayla Hulett in the bottom of the second inning off of sophomore Madeline Maday that gave Dragons a 1-0 lead in the second inning.

Clarkston answered in the top of the third when sophomore Candace Kitchen hit an RBI single to score Makayla Blaska from second to tie the score at 1-1.

The drama started in the top of the sixth inning when Clarkston’s senior hitter Sydney Hasselbach hit an RBI single that scored Kitchen from second base and give the Wolves a 2-1 lead. Clarkston used Maday, who got into some trouble with runners on second and third base and struck out Sophomore Hannah Hamay to end the threat in the bottom half of the sixth inning.

The Dragons then got out of the Wolves half of the seventh inning without any damage but then the drama started again. Lake Orion sophomore Megan Hall got a double to start the Dragons rally in the seventh inning, and then got a bunt from Megan Remer off of Maday to set up a threat.

Then Alex Carpenter showed up to the plate.

The speedy sophomore then got an RBI single off Maday, scoring Hall and tying the score at 2-2.

The Dragons then got a base hit from Julie Malear that loaded the bases with nobody out. Lake Orion's cleanup hitter Rachel Dolland then went up to the plate and got a ground ball toward the Clarkston infield. The Wolves couldn't get the softball cleanly and committed an infield error, causing no play along with the winning run to score and the Orion girls got out of the dugout and celebrated with their teammates.

This is the first district title under Coach Joe Woityra for the Dragons and the team’s first district since 2008 when the late Denny Davis was coaching the team.

The Dragons earlier in the season swept the Wolves in Clarkston. Both pitchers pitched well for both teams, Maday went the distance, gave up three earned runs, and struck out one batter, which was Hamay. Freshman pitcher Sierra Gonzales went the distance, allowing two earned runs, and struck out five batters for the Dragons.

Kendall Thomas and Remer combined to go 4 for 5 in the district final for the Dragons. Hasselbach concludes her carrier with a 3-3 day with three hits and a RBI and Kitchen who will be back for the Wolves went 2 for 3 with two hits and a RBI.

In the semifinal game both Dolland and Malear went a combined 6 of 8 with five RBI’s for the Dragons and had to overcome a Grand Slam from Waterford Kettering’s Emma Colegrove in the bottom of the seventh inning and a home run from Jordyn Troy to escape against the Captains.

Lake Orion’s next opponent is Hartland. The Eagles are coming in with a record of 29-9. Hartland went into White Lake and demolished White Lake Lakeland 8-2 to get to this match up. Hartland is led by Abby Minkster. She is a very good pitcher who likes to get a lot of pop ups and is a strikeout pitcher. Minkster had 11 strikeouts against Eaton Rapids in a game this season. The Eagles have a very good hitter in Lindsay Pajot. Pajot had five RBI’s against White Lake Lakeland and is a very dangerous player when up at the plate. Hartland also has Kaitlin Hotchkin who had two RBI’s against Fenton, Sarah Tomlinson who is also a very good player. Hannah Greene who had the tying single against Eaton Rapids, and Chantal Olchanski whom had a winning triple against Eaton Rapids are Hartland’s big threats on the diamond.

We’ll see what happens next Saturday. The winner of the Orion/Hartland match up will take on either Troy or Romeo. It should be an interesting weekend on the diamond.