MOT scored all four of its runs in the first inning before posting a 4-0 victory over New Jersey in the opening round of the 8-10 softball Mid-Atlantic Regional on Monday afternoon.

The Delaware state champions next face Maryland on Tuesday at noon in the 10-team tournament being played in Pittston, Pa.

Aubrey Martin pitched the shutout, allowing only three hits and striking out 10. Molly Frantz and Grace Overby both had two RBI for MOT.
Martin, Overby, Ella Austin and Frantz all had hits.

Baseball

Major League

Naamans 4, Milton 1: Naamans downed Milton to capture the state title in Major League baseball on Saturday night.

The state championship was the first since 2006 for the Little League located north of Wilmington.

Naamans advances to the four-team Mid-Atlantic Regional, which starts on Aug. 7 in Bristol, Conn. Naamans is one of only two Delaware leagues to reach the Little League Williamsport, Pa., making it in 2003.

Naamans went 2-0 in the state tourney, out-scoring its opponents 16-1. It’s the third straight season that a District II squad won the state championship.

Milton, which won three state titles between 2016-18, went 1-2 in the tournament.

8-10 tournament

MOT 12, Canal 9: The District I champions completed their climb out of the losers’ bracket to win the state title on Saturday.

The Middletown-area squad won three straight games to earn a spot in the Eastern Regional. That tourney begins on Aug. 5 in Cranston, R.I.

On Saturday, MOT rallied from a 7-3 deficit in the top of the sixth before winning the game in seven innings.

In the sixth, Kyle Bailey’s two-run double tied the game at 7-7. Billy Windley and Tripp Harding also had RBI in the comeback.

MOT answered with five more runs in the seventh. Harding’s three-run double put MOT ahead to stay with Bailey adding a run-scoring double.

Canal came back with two runs in the bottom of the seventh before reliver Liem Fitzgerald closed out the victory.

Harding and Bailey combining for seven of MOT’s 13 hits with 10 RBI.

College football

Hens’ Whitehead erans honor: Delaware football safety Kedrick Whitehead earned his second preseason All-American recognition as he was named to the 2022 Stats Perform FCS Preseason All-America first team.

The Middletown High grad was previously selected to the Athlon Sports’ FCS Preseason All-America team in June.

Whitehead is coming off a season in which he earned an All-CAA first-team selection as well as Stats Perform FCS third-team All-America honors.

Whitehead ranked second on the defense last fall with 76 total tackles and was a force in the UD secondary, breaking up eight passes and creating a turnover at Rhode Island. Whitehead finished with 1.5 TFL and had three games with at least 10 tackles, including a career-high 15 against James Madison.

Whitehead earned All-America honors for the third-straight season after being named a Stats Perform, Associated Press and Athlon Sports First Team All-American following the 2020-21 spring campaign and a HERO Sports Sophomore All-American in 2019.

The Blue Hens, who are ranked No. 15 in the HERO Sports Preseason FCS Poll and No. 20 in the 2022 Athlon Sports FCS Preseason Top 25, will open the season on Sept. 3 at Navy.

College soccer

UD women get new assistant: Delaware women’s soccer head coach Mike Barroqueiro has announced the hiring of Mary Hearin as an associate head coach for the Blue Hens.

Hearin arrives in Newark after a six-year stint as assistant coach at NJIT. She helped lead the Highlanders to three postseason appearances during her tenure, including consecutive trips to the ASUN Tournament semifinals in 2018 and 2019.

Hearin, a former player and assistant coach at UMBC, began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at her alma mater in 2007-08, and was a full-time assistant coach with the Retrievers in 2008 and 2009.

From 2013-16, Hearin worked as a staff assistant coach at Maryland United Football Club with the Elite Clubs National League u13 through u18 girls teams. At the same time, she was assistant girls soccer coach at McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Md.

Hearin was a head coach and assistant coach at Freestate Soccer Alliance, based in Bowie, Md., from 2007 through 2013. She has also served as head coach for teams at FC Copa Academy and PSA Wildcats since 2016.