by Andrew Wasik ’13

Since her freshmen year, junior Meggie Dejter has wanted to win a state championship for Sherwood. Last year, her dream came true when she pitched a 1-0 shutout in the championship game against Chesapeake to complete the team’s perfect season and win the first softball state championship in school history. “I was really nervous before the game, and then I walked the first batter. But then I managed to calm myself, and when we won I was overjoyed,” Dejter recalled.

Now as a junior, Dejter has already committed to play Division I softball at Villanova. “I started getting college looks my sophomore year, but they were all D3 looks. This year was when I started getting D1 looks.”

Dejter, who has been pitching since she was eight years old, comes from a friendly and athletic environment at home. “My brother plays baseball [at Salisbury], and my dad is the main reason I am playing in college,” said Dejter. “He’s the one who pushes me in sports and softball and helps me out.” She has had to make many sacrifices throughout high school because of her Division 1 aspirations, including seeing a pitching coach every single week during the winter. “On weekends, I have curfews because I have practice or tournaments pretty much every weekend. I also have to be super safe on social media because during the recruiting process, schools look at that type of stuff.”

Since freshmen year junior catcher Rachael Harrison has been behind the plate when Dejter pitches. “She’s a really hard worker, she’s a perfectionist,” said Harrison of Dejter. “At practice she goes through all of her pitches and if they aren’t perfect she does them again. If she doesn’t think we get a good workout in at practice she goes home to work out with her dad.”

Dejter uses four main pitches on the mound: a curveball, a screwball, a drop curve and a changeup.  The fastball is not used as often in softball as it is in baseball. “It’s really hard to catch the drop curve,” said Harrison. “On the pitch there is a curving motion but the ball is dropping at the same time. A lot of the time it hits the dirt which is hard to stop.”

The team hopes to win their second state championship in a row, and are the favorites to do so. But this year, there are some added incentives to do well. “We just found out our travel coach, who has been my coach for seven years, was diagnosed with cancer,” said Dejter, “So this year we are trying to have a great season. He comes to every game.”

After the first five games, Dejter is 5-0 with a total of 40 strikeouts on the season. She has only allowed a total of five runs and is averaging eight strikeouts a game. On April 13, she pitched a season-high 11 strikeouts against Magruder. In addition, Dejter has a strong offense behind her as the Warriors have scored over 10 runs in every game but the one against Blair. Dejter looks to keep pitching well as the Warriors try and keep their perfect season alive. The Warriors have their next game today at home at 3:30 against Clarksburg.