With so many talented players returning, the parts are in place for the Bishop O’Connell Knights to have another usual standout championship season in girls softball.
The 10-time defending Division I private-school state champion in Virginia finished 21-1 last season with 11 straight victories. Overall, the high-school squad has won 26 state titles in program history, and has won 20 or more games for 28 seasons in a row.
In addition, the Knights are the defending Washington Catholic Athletic Conference tournament champs, and have won that title 24 times.
O’Connell is scheduled to open its season with a non-conference road against John Paul the Great on March 16, then play an out-of-town doubleheader March 18.
The team’s home opener is scheduled for March 21 against WCAC rival Bishop McNamara at 4 p.m. at the Tuckakoe Elementary School field complex.
The top player returning for O’Connell is hard-throwing senior right-handed pitcher Katie Kutz, who has dominated opposing hitters with high strikeout numbers while playing for the Knights. She won every game she started last season and was chosen as the Division I state Player of the Year.
Kutz was 15-0 last season. The Oklahoma State University commit compiled a 0.39 earned run average and struck out 235 batters in 107 innings. With the bat, she smacked seven homers, had 37 hits, drove in 44 runs and had a .487 batting average.
She has been chosen by MaxPreps as the best softball player in Virginia for the 2023 season and the 13th best nationally. Last spring, Kutz was selected as the 2022 Gatorade Virginia Softball Player of the Year.
“With Katie on the mound, your team has a good chance to win,” O’Connell coach Suzy Willemssen said. “She is outstanding.”
Other top returning players are junior outfielder Sofia Anderson, junior catcher/infielder Sophia Taliaferro and senior third baseman Alyssa Dichard. Anderson and Dichard were first-team all-state selections in 2022. Taliaferro will play college softball at Syracuse University.
Anderson hit .560 last season and Dichard and Taliaferro each .464.
Others are first-baseman Abby Bond, catcher Ari Clark, Lauren Gatti, Zoe Wanek, Emma Prykanowski and Lucy Henzler.
Clark hit .473 and belted two home runs last season.
Bond had a 3-1 pitching record for the Knights last season, seeing action the few times Kutz did not pitch.
Freshman players Genevieve Payne and Callahan Lissenden are on the roster in addition to sophomore shortstop Brianna Lencz and junior Katherine Sullivan.
“Our defense should be fine, but we lost two big bats from last season so we have to make up for that,” Willemssen said. “We will have to make the plays and get the hits. This team has a lot of versatility.”
Willemssen said she expects play in the WCAC will be improved from last season, with Good Counsel, St. Mary’s Ryken and St. Paul VI Catholic among the top contenders. Good Counsel lost to O’Connell in last season’s WCAC tournament-championship game.
“Good Counsel returns a lot of players, so we know they will be good again,” said Willemssen, who has been in charge for O’Connell’s last three state titles.
O’Connell’s schedule also includes an annual non-conference road game against the McLean Highlanders in a big private vs. public-school showdown on Saturday, March 25 at 2 p.m. The teams have played many close games over the years, and have traded victories.
McLean was a Virginia High School League Class 6 state-tournament semifinalist last spring.
The Highlanders lost to O’Connell in that 2022 meeting.
NOTES: O’Connell has won 30 straight state-tournament games en route to winning 10 straight tournament championships . . . This season’s Washington Catholic Athletic Conference softball tournament-championship game will return to the George Mason University women’s softball facility for the second straight season. Prior to last season the championship game was moved around from different sites from year-to-year.
