CUMBERLAND — Both Fort Hill and Southern left the field Monday with a sense of optimism.
Their pitchers — the Sentinels’ Haley Metz and the Rams’ Adeline Wilson — each threw gems, and their opportunistic offenses battled until the final out.
Southern found the tying run in the seventh on a Sentinel error, but Fort Hill answered in the bottom half as an error allowed Taylor Wiseman to score the walk-off run in a thrilling 3-2 victory at Washington Middle.
“First off, I give Southern credit,” Fort Hill head coach Jason McMahan said. “This was a dogfight. First game of the season for them, they were excited, they were up and ready. Hats off to them for being prepared to come down here to Allegany County and give us a tough game.
“We need to do a little better at piecing our hits together. We have to do a better job of executing defensively. But I’m proud of my players for not quitting and fighting all the way.”
Fort Hill improved to 2-0, with both victories coming over Western Maryland Athletic Conference opposition.
The Rams (0-1) trailed 2-1 entering the final inning but rallied to force a bottom half.
A misplayed fly ball off the bat of Southern’s Lindsay Miller allowed her to reach third base. Fort Hill later caught her in a rundown with a back pick, but its third baseman hit Miller in the back, allowing her to score.
Wiseman drew a two-out walk in the bottom half. One batter later, Southern’s third baseman fielded a grounder by Tatum Bishop, but a high throw up the first-base line scored Wiseman from first for the winning run.
“For the first game, it was a pretty awesome job,” Southern interim head coach Randy Tichnell said. “(Wilson) pitched a heck of a game. Our bats, we didn’t get a lot of hits, but we caused chaos when we got on the bases. Pretty proud of our defense.
“We’re young across the board, but we didn’t give up. Hopefully we can continue to build on that.”
Metz, a freshman making her first career start, earned the win, allowing two unearned runs on five hits with eight strikeouts to two walks in seven innings of work.
“She pitched an outstanding game,” McMahan said.
Wilson was dealt the loss, though none of her three runs were earned. The right-hander allowed four hits in 6 2/3 frames, fanning four and walking a pair.
Bishop led Fort Hill with two base hits. Wiseman had an RBI in the third inning to score Leighton Thomas, and an error on a safety squeeze by Brynnan Wigger allowed MaeLeigh Plummer to score in the fourth.
Emelee Parks scored Southern’s other run on a Fort Hill throwing error in the third inning. The junior also had two steals.
Southern is at Preston on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
Fort Hill hosts Spring Mills in a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at noon.
While defending Class 1A state champion Allegany is still the favorite in the WestMAC until proven otherwise, the conference figures to be as competitive as it has been in years with young talent at each member school.
“Whether you win by 10 or 1, a win’s a win. It wasn’t pretty, but it’s still a ‘W.’ We’ll take it moving forward,” McMahan said.
“There’s a lot of parity within the conference. Everyone is going to have to earn their wins.”