SOFTBALL Top-ranked Boardman is 11-1 after sweep

In the second game, the Spartans defeated the Division II defending state champion, Conneaut.
By BRIAN RICHESSON
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BOARDMAN -- Believe Bill Amero when he says he's pleased -- although not satisfied -- with his Boardman High softball team.
The reasons are many:
UIts ace pitcher, Marissa Bartholomew, has been a senior leader on the mound.
UIts standout third baseman-pitcher, junior Gina Rango, has returned to the team following an absence for medical reasons.
UDespite the inconsistent northeastern Ohio weather, it has played 12 games, losing just one.
Boardman, the No. 1 ranked team in the Division I poll, continued its torrid start to the season Saturday in a doubleheader sweep of Walsh Jesuit 2-1 in eight innings and Conneaut 2-0 at Field of Dreams.
Best competition: "On the weekends we try to play the best competition we can play," Amero said. "These are the type of games we need to be in."
The Spartans capped the day by shutting out the defending Division II state champion, behind the effort of Bartholomew (7-1), who pitched a complete-game four-hitter.
"She had good control early in the game," Amero said. "All of her pitches seemed to be working well."
The game that sent Boardman, last season's Division I state runner-up, into its spring break pitted Bartholomew against Conneaut standout sophomore Adrian Tuttle, who, as a freshman, went 13-0.
"We were ready for her," Boardman junior shortstop Mary McCabe said of Tuttle. "We had the little talks, 'Tuttle's coming.' We didn't know how she'd do because she pitched the whole first game."
Upon tossing a no-hitter against Walsh Jesuit, Tuttle took the mound against Boardman, but she lasted just four innings. She was taken out because of a sore knee, Conneaut coach Clyde Laughlin said.
In those four innings, the Spartans had five hits and scored the only run they would need.
Hard hitters: "They've hit the ball harder than any team we've played so far," Laughlin said.
Bartholomew's hard infield hit to the shortstop scored sophomore Jennifer Pancake in the third.
"She's a pull-hitter, and she just hit the gap," Amero said of Bartholomew.
Boardman's second run came in the sixth inning when Rango scored on sophomore Jennifer Feret's groundout.
From there, it was up to Bartholomew to finish the game. She did so, but not before working her way out of a sixth-inning jam, which started when the first two Conneaut batters recorded hits.
Bartholomew, who said she benefited from her effective drop-balls and rise-balls, struck out two of the next three batters, with another being erased on a sacrifice bunt.
Ball movement: "I was keeping them off-balance by pitching in the corners -- inside, outside," Bartholomew said.
Boardman freshman second baseman Jaclyn Corroto helped preserve the victory by making a sensational diving catch for the first out in the seventh inning.
Corroto also keyed Boardman's win over Walsh by singling in Rango with the deciding run with two outs in the eighth.