Fayetteville, NC - The 2025 season kicked off Saturday as the Howard Community College Dragons took the field against Fayetteville Technical Community College.
In an action-packed double-header against the Trojans, the Dragons split their two games. Howard lost the first 10-8, then turned around and put a beating on the Trojans with an 18-4 win.
Game One: Trojans 10, Dragons 8
Howard came out swinging in the first inning, quickly jumping out to a 2-0 lead. An error in left field allowed
Courtney Johnson (Fulton, MD/Reservoir) to score the first run of the season, and a line drive single from pitcher
Marissa Webb (Hanover, MD/Mount de Sales) brought home
Taylor Pence (Mt. Airy, MD/Glenelg). However, Webb struggled in her first inning of pitching for the Dragons, allowing five Trojans to reach home plate.
Webb locked in and shut down the Trojans through the next two innings, and in the top of the fourth the Dragons pounced on a Fayetteville error to add another run. Pence kept the rally going in the fifth with the first home run of the season deep into center field, but the Trojans answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning.
The sixth inning would see the wildest play yet. Howard's
Morgan Ryan (Laurel, MD/Atholton) kicked off a rally with an RBI double, then scored herself on a passed ball. A wild sequence of errors allowed both
Sophia Steele (Eldersburg, MD/Liberty) and
Courtney Johnson (Fulton, MD/Reservoir) to take home, giving Howard their first lead since the top of the first. Fayetteville immediately came back, scoring on consecutive grounders to retake the lead, then held off one last rally attempt by the Dragons in the seventh to clinch the win.
The Dragons managed two extra-base hits and four stolen bases.
Courtney Johnson (Fulton, MD/Reservoir) scored two runs and two stolen bases, while
Marissa Webb (Hanover, MD/Mount de Sales) led the team with two hits. Six different Dragons recorded at least one hit. Webb recorded a complete game on the mound, striking out three batters.
Game Two: Dragons 18, Trojans 4
Game two saw
Sophia Steele (Eldersburg, MD/Liberty) head to the mound for the Dragons with excellent results. The freshman shut out the Trojans through the first two innings, while the offense mounted an assault on Fayetteville's error-prone pitching. Howard got the bases loaded early, scored one run off an error, another off a bases-loaded walk, and two off of hit-by-pitches.
More traditional runs came in the top of the second. Four straight RBI singles by
Madison Falby (Laurel, MD/Reservoir),
Micah Howell (Columbia, MD/Atholton),
Morgan Ryan (Laurel, MD/Atholton), and
Sophia Steele (Eldersburg, MD/Liberty) upped the Dragons lead to 9-0.
Marissa Webb (Hanover, MD/Mount de Sales) put the finishing touch on the Dragons explosive start with a solo home run to start the third, giving Howard a 10-0 lead.
The Trojans got some momentum going with a two-run RBI double in the bottom of the third, but Howard put the game away in the fourth. The RBI singles continued with
Taylor Pence (Mt. Airy, MD/Glenelg) and
Morgan Ryan (Laurel, MD/Atholton) adding to the total.
Micah Howell's (Columbia, MD/Atholton) two-run RBI double made it 16-2, and Ryan continued her hitting streak with another RBI single.
Raegan Perkes (Laurel, MD/Laurel) wrapped up the inning with an RBI single of her own to make it 18-2. The Trojans got two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, but any chance of victory was behind them.
Morgan Ryan (Laurel, MD/Atholton) was the star of the show with three hits, four RBIs, and one double.
Micah Howell (Columbia, MD/Atholton) scored two runs, had two hits, and sent home four RBIs along with a stolen base. The Dragons stole six bases, with
Sophia Steele (Eldersburg, MD/Liberty) and
Taylor Pence (Mt. Airy, MD/Glenelg) leading all Dragons with two each. On the mound, Steele pitched a complete game with three strikeouts and just seven hits allowed.
The Dragons next face Richard Bland College in a three-game series on Sunday and Monday.
