Ellicott City, MD - An exciting finish to the regular season saw the Dragons walk off with a doubleheader sweep in the regular season finale over the Camden County Cougars.

With the wind gusting out to left field, Camden jumped out to a three run lead with a home run in the top of the first. Howard answered back with RBI doubles by Alyssa Kelly (Laurel, MD/Reservoir), Ashleigh Gerber (Marriottsville, MD/Marriotts Ridge), and Samantha Hobert (Elkridge, MD/Howard) to put the Dragons ahead 4-3. The Dragons added five runs in the second inning with Kelly added another RBI double along with RBI hits by Kasey Smith (Jessup, MD/Hammond), Katelyn Burdette (Frederick, MD/Walkersville), and Hobert. 

The second inning rally had the mood dampened with Smith re-injuring her knee, but with the Dragons only having nine rostered players available to play, she was forced to continue to play through the game as she was moved from the pitcher's mound to right field as Hobert relieved her. Despite the injury, Smith still managed to hit an RBI single to right field in the third inning as she hobbled to first base to make it a 10-3 Howard lead.

Brittney Dix (Elkridge, MD/Long Reach) knocked out her fourth home run of the season to start a seven run fourth inning. The heroics of Smith had one last piece of magic as she hit a two-RBI shot to right center field, later scoring on a Dix RBI single to make it 17-3 Howard. Camden managed to add a run in the top of the fifth, but Hobert closed out the game to pick up the win in a five inning shortened game.

The drama continued as the Dragons activated Sofie Pulone (Catonsville, MD/Catonsville) to the roster as she started game two in her first softball experience of her lifetime. Once again, Camden used the long ball with three home runs in the first two innings to jump out to a 4-0 lead after two innings. The Dragons fought back in the bottom of the third with Kelly hitting a triple to right center scoring Sage Huber (West Friendship, MD/Glenelg) and Madeline Lackey (Manchester, MD/Manchester Valley). Gerber doubled to score Kelly followed by home runs by Burdette and Dix to give Howard the 6-4 lead.

Camden tied the game up with a run in the fourth and fifth, then added four more runs in the top of the sixth as they took an 11-7 lead. After Lackey and Huber reached base, Gerber lasered a shot over the left field fence followed by Burdette hitting a moon shot over the left field fence for back-to-back home runs to tie the game at 11-11. 

One last bit of drama ensued in the bottom of the seventh as Lackey had a shot to left field bounce off the top of the fence and come back into play for a double. The stellar Huber stepped to the plate and doubled to deep left field as Lackey came surging home for the walk-off winner to end the regular season on a high note.

Howard will now prepare for the Region 20 tournament quarterfinals where they will travel to Chesapeake College in a best of three series on Saturday, May 6th. The Dragons enter the tournament as the #7 seed as they look to avenge a couple of regular season losses against the #2 seed Skipjacks.