Poland ace leads rout of Lakeview

Freshman Liz Maher tossed a four-hitter in a 10-1 district semifinal victory.
By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
JEFFERSON -- Poland High softball coach Reid Lamport was impressed when he learned Lakeview batters roughed up Conneaut's hard-throwing ace Heather White in last week's sectional tournament game.
"She's 13-3 and Lakeview knocked her out," Lamport said, "so we had a tremendous amount of respect for Lakeview coming in.
"We knew we weren't going to try to just throw fastballs down the middle of the plate," Lamport said. "We knew we wouldn't be able to do that and survive."
That's why Lamport chose freshman pitcher Liz Maher for Monday's Division II district semifinal game against Lakeview even though it was just her fifth varsity start.
Staked to an early 6-0 lead, Maher was able to keep the Lakeview (15-6) batters off-balance for much of the game as Poland cruised to a 10-1 victory.
Today at 4:30 p.m., Poland (24-3) will compete for its fifth straight district title against Ashtabula Edgewood at the Jefferson Area Girls Softball Complex. It's the third straight year Edgewood and Poland have played in the tournament.
Monday, Maher (5-0) scattered four hits.
"Liz pitched a magnificent game," Lamport said. "There's a young lady that's only had about five [starts] the whole season but right now is throwing better than anyone.
"She certainly had command of her pitches today," Lamport said. "Sometimes with a freshman, it takes a little time to develop."
Changeup magic
Added Maher: "My outside [pitch] and my changeup have really come along this year. Those are my two main pitches. My changeup is finally coming around. They used to be really bad -- they were floaters that would get rocked."
Maher didn't know she would start until warmups.
"[Lamport] usually doesn't tell us ahead of time," Maher said. "He usually has two of us warm up and see who's throwing better."
Ahead 1-0 in the third inning, Poland combined three hits, two Lakeview errors and a walk into five runs to put the game out of reach.
The big blast come from Kari Thompson, who hit a three-run homer to left-center.
"I think it was a fastball down the middle, but I'm not gonna lie -- I don't know what it was," said Thompson, whose three-run homer in the seventh inning a week ago defeated West Branch to keep Poland alive.
Nerves
"I just look for the ball as it's coming in," Thompson said. "When you start thinking about it, that's when bad things happen.
"It was a really great win [because] I came in here nervous because I play travel ball with about a million of [Lakeview's] girls," Thompson said.
Not long after Thompson's homer, Maher tripled into the left field corner to bring home two more runs to make it 6-0.
Poland added a pair of runs in the fifth and seventh innings to seal the win. Kristy Hertz doubled home two runs in the fifth.
"We came out very aggressively offensively," Lamport said. "Our girls were very patient -- they didn't swing at bad pitches. They hit the ball very well."
Lindsay Whetzel (9-2) suffered her second loss for Lakeview.
Amy Downs had two singles while Michelle Antonelli and Lauren Whetzel one each for Lakeview.
"Just as last week we took Conneaut out of their game, they took us out of our game," Lakeview coach Carl Eaton said. "[Maher] had good stuff offspeed. She gets that first strike and then the offspeed stuff comes in. And when it's 0-2, that's the pitcher's feast."
williams@vindy.com