Devilettes hitting their stride

By Shane Mettlen

Published: May 18, 2008

Heading into Monday’s opening round of the Cedar Run District tournament, the Culpeper County High School softball team has been nearly perfect.

The Devilettes — the No. 3 seed — dominated both offensively and defensively in the month of May, outscoring the opposition 30-1 in the past six games. But nearly perfect and perfect aren’t one-and-the-same, and during that incredible stretch Culpeper actually suffered a 1-0 loss to regular season champion Battlefield. And don’t think the Devilettes have forgotten that fact.

“We are confident,” CCHS second baseman Anna Klumpp said. “But we’re not cocky about it. It’s extremely important to us to win the tournament and maybe beat Battlefield.

As a team we want it really bad because this is the last year Culpeper is going to be one team and all these girls are going to be one team.”

The Devilettes will lose seven seniors to graduation next season and the remaining talent will be split among CCHS and the new Eastern View High School. With that in mind, the softball team knows they could end the one-high school era in Culpeper with a championship.

“You’re not going to find a team as close as we are,” Klumpp said. “We just love each other so much and we’re definitely thinking about that.”

The Devilettes (14-4, 9-4) have reason to be confident. In the past two weeks Culpeper managed to avenge earlier losses to Osbourn and Loudoun Valley, which earned the No. 2 seed in the district tournament via tiebreaker, beating the Eagles 5-0 and the Vikings 4-0 to close out the regular season.

“We figured we might as well come out and show them we were better than them since they beat us last time,” senior shortstop Michelle Beall said. “We wanted some payback and we did it. In a it makes you feel good because it reminds you are better than the teams you are playing and near the end of the season we were better than when we started out.”

Culpeper will play host to Osbourn Park Monday in the tournament’s first round and if the Devilettes can win the district championship that will likely mean another shot at the only team on their schedule they haven’t beaten — Battlefield.

The Bobcats pulled out a pair of 1-0 victories against CCHS in the regular season and if CCHS can avenge those losses it would only serve to make the road to the Northwest Regional tournament even sweeter.

A district title, a regional berth and maybe a trip to states all seem like reasonable goals to this team, but the Devilettes know that’s all contingent on playing just as well as they have the past six games.

“This team is right were it should be,” CCHS coach Janice Gillespie said. “They are peaking. They are hitting the ball well. The defense has been awesome and the offense is just right where it needs to be. They are playing phenomenal right now and I can’t say enough.”

Shane Mettlen can be reached at 825-0771, ext. 127 or .