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SPORTS WEEKLY
Volume 3 Issue 22 - Wednesday, June 28, 2023
CECIL COUNTY
CECIL COUNTY’S FAVORITE SPORTS PAPER
Redemption for Rising Sun in Softball States
By Kevin Phillips
COLLEGE PARK–Rising Sun High School found itself in a familiar position in the MPSSAA 2A Softball Championship Game: heading into extra innings tied with Calvert High School. Unlike last season where the Tigers fell to the Cavaliers in eight innings, this year’s edition ended happily for Rising Sun as it won the state championship for the first time in 20 years with a 1-0 eight inning victory when Josalyn McMillan
plated Catherine Meadows with a sacrifice. “We have been working at this for a really long time. Last year, we went through a loss in the championship. We ended up in second,” the Tigers’ Cadence Williams said. “We took that and ran with it. We knew what to expect coming into it, and we went after it.” Before Rising Sun had a chance to win the game in the eighth inning, it had to get through the top half of the inning without allowing a run with the disadvantage of
a free runner on second due to the international tiebreaker rule, and Williams did that just for the Tigers as she retired Calvert in order. With the top of the order coming up to the plate and the speedy Meadows on second as the free runner, Rising Sun was confident in its chances to secure the state championship. “There was so much adrenaline. I was so excited to be there. I knew with Catherine (Meadows) being on second and with Jordan (Lynch) batting, there was
no better position to be in,” the Tigers’ Faith McCullough said. Lynch led things off in the bottom of the eighth with a single to left that put Meadows on third, setting the stage for McMillan. After Lynch moved to second on defensive indifference to put runners of second and third with no outs, McMillan knew what she had to do to get Meadows home. “I knew I had a lot of speed on third, so I just wanted to make solid con-
tact with the ball and put the ball on the ground on the right side,” McMillan said during the game’s dramatic final moments. “I just wanted to see the ball, and it went well.” Instead of hitting the ball on the ground, McMillan hit a line drive to right center field that was caught, but the ball was hit deep enough into the outfield to allow Meadows to tag up from third and race to home plate, beating the throw and scoring the championship-winning run for Rising Sun.
“I was just watching Catherine to see if she tagged up and scored,” McMillan described what she was thinking about after she made contact with the ball. The Tigers emptied the dugout and ran towards Meadows and McMillan to celebrate a hard-fought championship. Tiger head coach Paul Taylor knew that the eighth inning was going to be their best chance to win in the short term because of who continued on C5
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