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No surprise
Mitchell is All-County POY for fourth time
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo File photo by EMILY BARNES
McDonough's Melanie Mitchell has now been named All-County player of the year in all four years of her career.
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In Melanie Mitchell's final Athlete Diary entry in the sports section of the Maryland Independent on May 29, she simply began it by writing, ‘Well, this really is it. We won a state championship on Saturday and ended up finishing the season undefeated.'
There was always some form of playoff disappointment that kept those words from being uttered in the past by one of the county's most dominant players of all time.
With this year's selection, the recent McDonough graduate has now been named the All-County player of the year in all four years of her career.
Her overpowering pitching –– that overshadowed her dangerous bat –– also earned her most outstanding player honors in the league her final two seasons.
Yet, for all her individual accolades that seemingly came so easy, Mitchell discovered the much-deserving state championship to be anything but automatic the first three seasons of her McDonough career, on the heartbreak end of playoff losses each time.
As a freshman, she nearly upset arguably the state's all-time greatest pitcher in Calvert's Megan Elliott. An infield error on a simple toss to first base kept Mitchell from winning that regional final.
In Mitchell's sophomore year, it was an upset loss in the regional semifinals to Patuxent at home that derailed her state-title hopes. McDonough was a big favorite in the contest but wasted several scoring opportunities to blow open an early 1-0 lead. The offensive struggles, combined with some defensive missteps, resulted in a 2-1 loss on the mound for Mitchell.
It seemed last year would be Mitchell and the Rams' breakthrough season, as they advanced all the way to the state final against a formidable Easton club. Ahead 1-0, Mitchell was unable to keep the slim lead when a crucial umpiring call went against McDonough on what could have been a double play at third base.
That Easton runner on third scored to tie the game, and Easton tacked on another run to come away as a 2-1 victor –– causing McDonough to settle for runner-up status in the state.
This year, McDonough was determined to adequately support its ace in the big games on both sides of the ball. It did just that all the way to ruling the state.
And Mitchell proved she was capable of improving on a stellar junior campaign with a near-perfect senior season.
Mitchell boasted a zero earned run average –– pitching shutouts in all but one of her 19 games –– and made perfect games and no-hitters look rather ordinary.
Her fourth and final perfect game of the season –– amounting to nine no-hitters –– came in the regional final, and that propelled Mitchell to bullying the opposition the rest of the way.
In the state title game, Mitchell blanked Landsdowne, 4-0. The University of Virginia-bound strikeout pitcher appropriately fanned the final batter she faced.
More appropriate was McDonough's runs in the final game, proving it could generate more than the minimal amount for a Mitchell victory.
And four was also the amount of state titles Mitchell pitched well enough to win in her career. But she never thought about what-if, or moaned about other aspects of her team not pulling its end of the deal.
In her graceful, classy style, Mitchell's final diary entry about her sole state title read, ‘The only thing that matters to me now is that we were able to bring the state title home in my last year of being able to do so. … Personally, I cannot thank my teammates, coaches and supporters enough for everything that has happened these past few years.'
