For Harford Tech and Bel Air softball, coaching runs in the family

After Bel Air softball lost to Harford Tech, 2-1, on Wednesday, that night’s dinner was on Bobcats coach Nicole Cosgrove.

Cobras coach Mark McClaskey is Cosgrove’s father. Wednesday was the first time this season their teams squared off, a game that’s become a twice-annual tradition since McClaskey took over Harford Tech two years ago and one they both circle on their calendar once the schedules are announced.

They asked the Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference to play twice this season after divisional realignment would have only given them one matchup.

Dad leads the all-time series now, 2-1, after they split last year’s meetings. They’ll see each other again April 30 in their regular season finales.

They went to Naughty Dogs — McClaskey’s choice and just down the road from the diamond at Harford Community College where they played. There, he looked forward to “some cold beverages” and a chance to “talk shop.”

“We’re constantly talking softball,” Cosgrove said.

The sport has always been at the center of McClaskey and Cosgrove’s tight bond. He coached her throughout youth leagues and high school. They’re friends of the Ripkens — Cosgrove’s team once beat Cal’s niece’s some years ago. And now, rather than sharing a bench, which they once briefly did and would love to someday do again, they battle each other twice a season. It offers both a reminder of what the game has given them.

“I can’t imagine life without it,” Cosgrove said. “I’ve loved this game my whole life.”

McClaskey is a coaching lifer. He’s led softball and baseball teams — even offering private hitting instruction on the side — for 38 years. That was enough inspiration for Cosgrove to enter the profession.

They were on the same staff at Patterson Mill for one season when Cosgrove was still in college. Then, they went to Harford Tech, where Cosgrove became head coach and McClaskey one of her assistants — a teacher and student reversal of sorts.

“That was the best time of my life,” McClaskey said.

Dad may have had an advantage Wednesday. He was tasked with watching Cosgrove’s son, his grandson, Tuesday night and took him to see Bel Air play Rising Sun. “We’re talking all year long about what each other had,” Cosgrove said. “I mean, it’s really no secret. We scout each other anyway.”

After that game, McClaskey and Cosgrove went to their own homes and watched softball on TV. No. 19 Clemson knocked off No. 1 Tennessee in extra innings. McClaskey estimates he watches 200 to 300 softball games per year. He can’t stop.

“I had a couple of encounters where I thought I was going to retire,” he said. “But if I can just improve one kid, one kid a year, that’s all I need.”

McClaskey and Cosgrove mirrored each other throughout seven innings of game action Wednesday. When his team takes the field, McClaskey finds his seat on a flipped-over bucket and watches from the end of the dugout, while Cosgrove handles third base coach duties with her team up to bat. Then, they switch. McClaskey trots to the dirt to man third base while Cosgrove gets comfortable on the bench.

They alternated posts Wednesday in a game that was tight throughout. Cosgrove’s Bel Air squad scored first in the top of the fourth with an RBI single from Lizzie Zarshona. Harford Tech responded with a pair of RBI singles in the bottom half of the frame from Lily Peters and Jen Pritzker and never relinquished its lead from there. Cobras pitcher Mikayala McJilton struck out seven in her seven-inning, one-run effort.

Bel Air put the tying run on base to lead off the final inning and eventually got the runner to third base, 60 feet from evening the score at 2, with one out.

“I thought for sure she was gonna squeeze on me,” McClaskey said. A successful bunt could have brought the critical run to the plate. Both coaches admit their similar way of seeing the game sometimes leads to second guessing of what the other will do when they battle each other.

“I almost did,” Cosgrove responded. “I thought about doing it on two strikes, too.”

She didn’t call such a play, and instead the last Bel Air batter flew out to right field to seal Harford Tech’s victory. Both coaches soon found their places at the back of their team’s handshake line and were each other’s final embrace. Like before the game when they exchanged lineup cards with umpires, they smiled and hugged. But it was quick. It wasn’t time for discussing the game just yet.

That happens over cheesesteaks.

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