Cristi Ecks has a new fan club!

[The Sheriff]

She is the only athlete that I know of to come from my high school to play at USF! And she is a badass! I'm making a call back to VA to find her and give her the low down about the Green and Gold!

Go Bulls and go Osbourn Eagles!

[The Sheriff]

On top of that, Osbourn's softball and baseball teams are playing for state championships today after graduation this morning! War Eagles War!

It's a beautiful day to be from Manassas, Virginia, and a South Florida Bull!

[BullDoug]

...I'm making a call back to VA to find her and give her the low down about the Green and Gold!

Sheriff calling & giving the low down to a female.  Now why doesn't that quite surprize me?  

[The Sheriff]

She lost today 1-0 in the state championship... what a heartbreaker. Then, the baseball team lost today in the state championship, 11-10. Well, here saga as an Eagle has ended and her legacy as a Bull is beginning... We will get to the CWS in softball with her at the helm... Go Bulls! Go Cristi!

[The Sheriff]

The recap of her season and game... two earned runs all year... that is pretty **** impressive.

The Agony of defeat

Two-out hit spells doom for Eagles in softball finals

Dave Utnik

dutnik@potomacnews.com

Sunday, June 12, 2005

The Osbourn High School softball team wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to its first loss of the season Saturday night. There were tears, of course, but the shocking end to their season in the Group AAA state championship game left the Eagles mostly numb.

Just a few feet away, the Kempsville Chiefs were bouncing up and down in front of their dugout following a dramatic 1-0 victory over the nation’s 17th-ranked team. It was a scene many of Osbourn’s players couldn’t bear to watch.

This was supposed to have been the best day of their lives: with a graduation celebration in the morning and a softball state title in the evening. When it was all done, there was only exhaustion and disappointment.

"I’m hurting really, really bad for the seniors," Osbourn coach Renee Leake said.

Accepting a second-place trophy wasn’t the way the Eagles had wanted to send their five graduates – Cristi Ecks, Alyssa Kemmerer, Brittany Lansdowne, Sam Wood and Julianne Sudduth – off to college. But their perfect season, one that included a school record for victories as well as district and regional championships, ended in defeat when Kempsville’s No. 9 hitter, Bre Whitehurst, flaired a two-out, two-strike hit to deep left field in the bottom of the seventh inning to drive in the game’s only run.

"It was a good hit. I’m not going to take anything away from that girl," Ecks said. "I wish I could have held on for one more strike."

Ecks had already done so much for the Eagles’ softball program that nobody was about to blame her for giving up the game-winning hit. Their streak of four consecutive state tournament appearances began the year that Ecks arrived in 2002 and she’d been nearly perfect in leading them to the finals for the first time in school history.

Even with a sore right arm that required her to wear an elastic brace for much of the postseason, Ecks was remarkable. She allowed seven runs the entire year – only two of them earned – and finished her career as the school’s all-time leader in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

It had been more than a year since any team beat the Eagles or Ecks, but the Chiefs did it on Saturday behind a terrific performance from Eastern Region pitcher of the year Mallory Mazur and two clutch seventh-inning hits.

Mazur, who out-dueled Madison’s Lauren Frankiewicz in the quarterfinals, tossed her 17th shutout of the season and her third in the state tournament. Using a change-up and a late-break curve that darting out of the strike zone against right-handed batters, the Chiefs’ senior allowed four hits and struck out seven.

Ecks matched her the entire way with six strikeouts in a five-hit effort and didn’t allow a runner to reach third until the seventh when Becky Pfeil started the game-winning rally with a double. Two outs later, Whitehurst came to the plate with runners on second and third and two outs. She squared around as if she might attempt a suicide squeeze, but everyone knew she was faking.

In Friday’s semifinal win over Gar-Field, she’d done the same thing and then swatted a hit into left field. This time, Whitehurst went to left field again – hitting a fly ball that soared over the head of Sarah Schultz.

"That ball was hit hard. There was nothing [sarah] could have done," Leake said. "She crushed it."

The Eagles did some crushing too. Cindy Moore whacked a double to lead off the third inning and Caitlin Davis roped a one-out double in the fifth. But Osbourn’s best chance at victory came in the seventh, when Kemmerer hit a fly ball that smacked off the top of the fence in center field.

It was just inches from being a home run and it conjured images of a similar ball that Lansdowne hit against Atlee in the semifinals four years ago.

Kemmerer sprinted to second with a leadoff double but the rally ended as quickly as it began when the Eagles’ catcher was thrown out attempting to steal third.

"The reason we did it is the third baseman didn’t do any kind of coverage all game long," Leake said. "I think Alyssa was out because she got airborne. Her foot was over the base and that’s where the tag was."

The Eagles’ last chance at victory was wiped away with a sweep tag by third baseman Vicki Madden and a day that began with the pomp and circumstance of graduation ended with Osbourn’s only loss of the season.

"We were obviously really tired," Ecks said. "It’s hard to do those things both in one day but I don’t want to make excuses. I’m proud of this team. We went 27-1 and that’s amazing.

"I’m crying right now but I know later I’ll be happy about what we accomplished."

[bulls96go]

who?

[Jim Johnson]

who?

man, you are an idiot aren't you...

do you bother reading any posts or just reply to the subject ??

[Apis Bull]

who?

She's the one on the left.

[Apis Bull]

This is a couple of years old.  She was only 15 at the time.

Cristina Ecks

Position: Pitcher, Third Base

Bats/Throws: R/R

High School: Osbourn HS

Graduation Year: 2005

Birthdate: August 27, 1987

GPA: 4.0

Softball Achievements

2002 14U Shamrocks - Team Captain

2001 14U Shamrocks - 2001 Pony National Champions - Sterling, VA

2000 14U Shamrocks

1999 12U Manassas Blaze

1999 World Series All Tournament MVP and Team Pitcher

1998 10U Manassas Express

1997 10U Manassas Blaze

1996 10U Manassas Blaze

Other Interest and Achievements

Varsity Softball

Volleyball

Osbourn High School Symphonic Band - Clarinet

Volleyball - 9th Grade Coaches Award - Osbourn High School

National Junior Honor Society - 2001

Presidential Physical Fitness 1997-2000