Northern Region Softball Championship Preview

(23-3, 14-0 Liberty District) vs. (19-4, 9-1 Concorde District)

Today: 4 p.m. at Madison 

In today's Northern Region softball championship game McLean looks to capture the title after falling to Madison last year 10-6. The Highlanders went on to win the Virginia AAA State Championship. But this year they will face a team that has been one of the favorites to win the region this whole season, the Westfield Bulldogs who are making their first appearance in this game since 2008. Both teams have already clinched State Tournament berths—but the winner gets to host the Eastern Region runner-up on Tuesday in the first round.

Westfield and McLean faced off earlier this season on April 18, when the Bulldogs took a 3-2 decision. Since that game, McLean has only lost one game, a 4-3 defeat to West Potomac on April 30. They rolled through the rest of the Liberty District, including another region favorite Stone Bridge beating them three times including their district championship game. They have a senior pitcher Jamie Bell who threw a perfect game in the regional semi-finals on Wednesday against South County. According to her stats on The Washington Post website she has driven in 23 runs and has struck out 128 batters this season.

Westfield has some bats they will counter with including Concorde District player of the year and senior shortstop Jess McNamara. She helped the Bulldogs advance this far by leading the team with her leadership as well as her defensive play. She will always go up to the plate and give you 110 percent effort and will be very aggressive with her base-running too, stealing two bases in Monday's quarterfinal victory over W.T. Woodson. Other big hitters that are capable of putting up runs are Jackie Martinez, Alex Bohrer and Alex Tenney.

The Bulldogs also have two very good pitchers in Keona Gaines and the Concorde District pitcher of the year Jenn Goodman. Goodman gave up seven hits in five innings of work in Wednesday's 4-2 victory over Oakton before being relieved by Gaines. Gaines struck out 11 batters in Monday's win and can locate her pitches very well. The question is: Who will coach Dean Ferington start in the circle tonight?

A little history about the Northern Region Championship: Teams currently in the Liberty District have won 16 championships while teams in the Concorde have seven. Though when all of these were won all teams were not in the districts as they have been re-districted throughout the years. McLean has never won a Northern Region Championship and Westfield won their only one in 2008 when they defeated Herndon 5-3, before losing to Woodside 7-4 in the state tournament.

The Road to the Championship: Each team has won three games to get to this point. McLean was the #1 seed out of the Liberty District and defeated Lake Braddock 4-2 in the first round, Hayfield 9-0 in the quarterfinals, and South County 4-0 in the semi-finals. Westfield, the #1 from the Concorde took down Washington-Lee 3-2, W.T. Woodson 4-2 and Oakton 4-2.

The state tournament will begin Tuesday and the winner of this game will play at home in the first round while the losing team has to travel to face the Eastern Region Champion. Should Westfield win tonight they could end up playing the entire state tournament at home as it is held at Westfield High School.

Should be a great game but not expecting a slugfest: the pitching is too good. I'm predicting a 3-1 Westfield victory.