Spalding baseball, softball on a roll

Archbishop Spalding High School is enjoying an unparalleled spring on the ball diamond, as the Cavaliers sit atop their respective standings in both baseball and softball. That prowess was on display April 19 on the school’s Severn campus, where coach Joe Palumbo’s baseball team handled Loyola Blakefield 13-0 and coach Nicki Trumpler’s softball team beat Mount de Sales Academy 4-2.

With a 19-2 overall record and a 10-1 mark in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference, Spalding baseball is ranked No. 1 in the Baltimore area by both The Sun and Varsity Sports Network. The Cavaliers made quick order of Loyola Blakefield, scoring four runs in the first, third and fourth innings in a game halted by the mercy rule, once the visitors batted in the top of the fifth.

Archbishop Spalding shortstop, Samantha Johnson, scores against Mount de Sales Academy during an April 19 women’s softball game at Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn. (Kevin J Parks/CR Staff) 

Billy Godrick leads Spalding with a .523 batting average and .603 on-base percentage. He’s also driven in 22 runs. Lavale Hodges has team highs of 24 RBI and three home runs, and David Harding has a .389 batting average and 20 RBI. Tyler Blohm limited Loyola Blakefield to one hit, improving his pitching record to 5-0 and dropping his ERA to 0.78. Zach Thompson has won all six of his pitching starts and thrown a team-high 39.1 innings, with an ERA of 0.89.

Archbishop Spalding outfielder, Lavale Hodges, beats the tag with a headfirst slide during an April 19 game against Loyola Blakefield at Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn.  (Kevin J Parks/CR Staff)

A 3-1 loss at C. Milton Wright April 15 dropped the softball team from the top spot in The Sun rankings, but the Cavaliers bounced back against Mount de Sales, their main competition in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference, to improve to 10-2 overall and 8-0 in the conference. Pitcher Katie Seidl went the distance and helped her own cause with an RBI single in the first that plated Sammi Johnson, who had three of the Cavaliers’ nine hits.

Seidl, a senior headed to Shenandoah University in Winchester, W.Va., has a team-high 25 RBI, and is batting .463. Johnson leads Spalding with a .526 batting average, followed by Caroline Wasko (.500), Jordan Johnson (.487) and Angela Sena (.400).