Springfield defeats Rebels to get Lisbon

The Tigers capitalized on Crestview's five errors for a 7-1 win.
By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
NEW MIDDLETOWN -- The Inter-County League's best softball team took advantage of five errors in its tournament opener to score five unearned runs against a good Tri-County League squad.
Springfield High's reward for defeating Crestview 7-1 Monday is a rematch with Lisbon, one of the TCL's best teams this spring.
"They beat us 11-1," Springfield coach Amy Angelo said of Lisbon after her Tigers (13-6) breezed to the Division III sectional win. "I'm not worried about it -- my girls are going to come in ready to go."
With four ICL games remaining, the Tigers are 10-0 with a two-game lead over Western Reserve.
Asked if the lopsided score against the Blue Devils was a bit of a fluke, Angelo didn't deny it.
"We had a lot of stuff going on and we tried a couple of different things," Angelo said.
Extra incentive
The Tigers have extra motivation going against TCL teams. According to pitcher Krista Snyder, the Tigers were eliminated by United the past three years.
Thanks to two errors, the Tigers pounced on the Rebels for a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Lead-off batter Christy Warren got the ball rolling when she reached base on an error. After Ashley Fagnano was hit by a pitch, Courtney Sheely drew a one-out walk to load the bases.
Samantha Cavalier singled to score Warren and Fagnano, and Rebecca Evan's groundout brought in a third run.
In their first four at-bats, the Rebels had at least one runner per inning reach second base.
But thanks to Snyder's changeup, the Rebels were able to score just once.
"That's my main pitch," Snyder said who tossed a four-hitter. "Some of my [pitches] weren't working, but still I got strikes."
In the second inning, Crestview reduced Springfield's lead to 3-1 when a two-base error and wild pitch put Jen McElroy on third base. She scored on Bree Vlaiku's single.
Tigers boost lead
The Tigers scored twice in the third inning after Breanne Mincher singled and Sheely walked. Snyder's two-out single and an infield error produced two runs.
Two more errors in the seventh inning helped the Tiger pad the lead to 7-1.
After Snyder had retired 11 straight batters, the Rebels loaded the bases with two hits and a walk before a line-out ended the game.
The Tigers committed three errors in the sloppily played game.
"It was very frustrating," Crestview pitcher Jessica Sferra said. "It's hard to pitch when there's a lot of errors. I'm very disappointed -- I would have liked to [go on] and played Lisbon."
The sloppiness didn't concern Angelo.
"It didn't shake me up so much because we had the lead," the Tigers' first-year coach said. "The errors came after [we had] the lead. [Even] with the bases loaded at the end, the winning run still wasn't on. And I don't think [my players] were nervous either."
Team holds together
Snyder said the Rebels' baserunners made it "a bit dicey out there, but we held together."
Crestview coach Clarence Sicklelsmith felt Snyder's left-handed delivery wasn't a problem for his batters.
"We got the bat on the ball, we just didn't do it consecutively like we should have," Sicklelsmith said. "You can't leave people stranded and we did that a lot."
The Rebels stranded eight runners while the Tigers left six on base.
"You've just got to hit the ball," Sicklelsmith said. "[Today was] just like we've been doing all year, struggling back and forth with [our] bats."
williams@vindy.com