Pikesville Softball Drops Three of Four

The Pikesville varsity softball team struggled once more in the final week of the regular season.

The Panthers lost to Hereford, Lansdowne and Owings Mills but earned a forfeit victory over Overlea for the second time in two weeks. That let Pikesville end the regular season with a 4-13 record.

Now comes the draw for the regional playoffs, set to take place on May 10. Pikesville will find out where it plays, and the Panthers have a first-round game on either Thursday or Friday.

The week began for Pikesville with a 14-4 loss at Hereford. For the Panthers, they made it interesting when they loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the fifth, trailing, 9-4. But they couldn’t get the crucial hit, and Hereford scored five in the bottom half, ending the game thanks to the 10-run mercy rule.

Abby Molofsky went 2-for-4, and Jess Rubin added a 2-for-2 performance.

Pikesville didn’t have nearly as much fun the following day as Lansdowne rolled to a 24-1 victory. The Vikings broke the game open with a 17-run second inning, and the contest went just five innings due to the mercy rule.

“They are a power,” said Pikesville coach Mike Behrens.

Emily Starobin knocked in the only Pikesville run in the loss. Rubin went 1-for-2 as the Panthers came up with a number of good chances early—banging out four hits in the first two innings before everything fell apart.

Lansdowne drew 11 walks and took advantage of eight Pikesville errors to score a number of unearned runs.

Pikesville got the 7-0 forfeit (the score when a team forfeits to another), over Overlea on Wednesday before falling to Owings Mills on Thursday. The Eagles used 13 walks and six errors from Pikesville and rolled to an 18-2 victory.

Rubin (1-for-3) and Krystal Baxter (2-for-2) each knocked in one run. Taylor Hentzman went 1-for-2 with a double. Behrens said the offense is making some noise, but the Panthers need to stop hurting themselves.

“We’re putting the ball into play,” he said. “We’re just not getting the timely hitting. We’re also just killing ourselves with walks and errors. That’s been a bugaboo for us all year.”

The Owings Mills game also was "Senior Day" where the juniors honor the seniors—a kind of good-bye. Pikesville juniors gave each senior (Ronje James, Ty Baxter and Molofsky) a rose and T-shirt, plus candy as a sending-off present.