Pozzuto pitches Rockets to state

Maplewood beat Bellaire St. John Central Catholic to earn its first state berth.
By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
KENT -- The superior ability to execute fundamentals has the best Maplewood High softball team making the school's first trip to state.
Thursday at 5:30 p.m., the Rockets (21-3) will take on Willow Wood Symmes Valley (27-4) in the state semifinals at Ashland's Brookside Park.
The reason is because the Rockets were able to successfully defend a squeeze play and lay down a sacrifice bunt in their 1-0 eight-inning victory Saturday over Bellaire St. John Central Catholic (26-3) in the Division IV regional final at Kent State University.
"I have so much confidence in this group of girls," Rockets coach Dave Flickinger said. "They have found out how to win ballgames no matter what."
After both teams threatened to score in the first inning, the game turned into a pitchers' duel between Maplewood sophomore Markie Pozzuto (206 strikeouts entering the game) and St. John senior Meghan Johnson (226 strikeouts).
At one point, Johnson retired 18 straight Rockets.
"[Johnson] took our big hitters out of the game," Flickinger said. "A sign of a good team is when the other batters pick it up and execute, and that's what happened."
Winning run
In the bottom of the eighth inning with one out, Jamie Rumple singled up the middle for the Rockets' first hit since the first inning. Leah Dean laid down a sacrifice bunt and the throw to first base was dropped, allowing Rumple to take third base.
Melissa Shipman popped the ball over the drawn-in infield to send Rumple home.
"When Shippie hit it, I was just so totally happy," Rumple said. "I knew I was going home.
"This was our biggest goal -- we've always been aiming to go to state," Rumple said. "We're very excited. We have two more games and we're going to win it."
Flickinger said his coaches debated bunting "but we wanted to see what the defense would do," Flickinger said. "Since they decided to play in, we decided to swing away.
"What a terrific job [Johnson] did," Flickinger said. "We knew she would continue to work the outside corner so we were trying to get Melissa to just punch it to the right side. She did a nice job getting it over the first baseman's head."
Close call
Back in the first inning, the Fighting Irish came extremely close to scoring after Marissa DeClemente singled to start the game and reached third on aggressive baserunning after a sacrifice bunt.
That feistiness backfired when Bellaire coach Jerry Magistro rolled the dice by asking his number-three batter Ashley Marinacci to lay down a squeeze bunt on a 2-1 pitch.
Marinacci missed Pozzuto's pitch and freshman catcher tagged out DeClemente for the second out.
"She was halfway [down the line] but she was going fullspeed, so I figured she would look up and stop," Spencer said. "I just had to hold the ball tight and go at her."
Flickinger said Pozzuto's pitch as "perfect -- high and out. She was underneath it.
"I can't say enough about Tori Spencer. She was alert on the play, knew it was a possibility and stuck with it," Flickinger said. "That was quite a collision."
Marinacci swung and missed the next pitch to end the inning.
Flickinger called the Irish gamble "a very good move early in the game. There was a lot of game left -- why not take a chance?"
An error and single by Meagan Rowbottom put two Rockets on base in the first inning. Johnson retired the next 18 batters before hitting Spencer in the sixth inning.
Johnson (22-2) struck out 10 batters while Pozzuto (17-2) finished with 15.
"We were having trouble with the drop curve but they finally adjusted and got the job done," Pozzuto said. "This is a real big one for us."
Flickinger said he expected a pitchers' duel "when I saw how much movement [Johnson] had on her drop curve. She's excellent with that pitch -- we were just swinging right over top of it."
Flickinger called Pozzuto a winner because "no matter what the situation is, she fights through it. She did great job today -- she kept them off-balance."
And put the Rockets on course for Ashland.
willias@vindy.com