Belated birthday blast lifts YSU

Freshman Cheryl Cale's walk-off homer helped the Penguins split with Toledo.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
CANFIELD -- Rick Cale smiled as he held up the handmade birthday card he received on Tuesday from his daughter Cheryl, a freshman at YSU. The first sentence, written in orange marker, read: "Maybe now that you're here, I'll hit another home run!"
A week earlier, Cheryl hit the first home run of her college career during a home game against Pittsburgh.
Problem was, Rick missed it.
"I've been giving him grief about it ever since," Cheryl said, smiling. "It's probably the only game he'll miss this year."
For the first five hours of Wednesday's doubleheader against Toledo at McCune Park, Cheryl, who is primarily a pitcher, didn't have much of a chance to make good on her prediction. Her only at-bat was a pinch-hit strikeout near the end of the first game.
But in the second game, with two outs and the tying run standing on second base during the bottom of the seventh inning, Cale got another chance and made the most of it, crushing a pitch over the left field wall for the first walk-off homer of her college career, giving the Penguins a 9-8 victory and a split with the Rockets.
"She stayed positive and when she got her shot, she made the most of it," said Penguins coach Christy Cameron, whose team lost the first game 8-6.
Did Cale know it was gone?
"Yeah, I just dropped the bat," she said. "I knew it was either going to be a pop-up or a home run."
Finding a way
Sophomore Kristen McDonnell, an Oregon native who chose Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" as her intro music when she comes to bat, also hit a home run in the seventh inning to cut the deficit to 8-7. Freshman Danielle Chase pitched the final 12/3 innings to get her first collegiate victory for YSU (11-12), which also rallied to take the lead in the sixth.
"That's one thing this team has done all year," said Cameron. "There's no quit in us. Sometimes we fall short and sometimes this [game-winning homers] happen.
"If you never quit, good things can happen."
Cale knows that firsthand. During the second game of her junior year at Columbus Bishop Watterson, Cale injured a nerve in her knee when she hit a rock sliding into a base. The Cales visited a neurosurgeon, who wondered whether she'd ever walk again.
"He told us, 'Either she's going to get better or she's going to stay the same,' " said Rick Cale, an Ohio State employee who was decked out in full YSU gear Wednesday. "She didn't get much better when she started her therapy, then all of a sudden she came back.
"The doctor said it was because she was in such good physical condition."
She returned toward the end of her junior season. Her first game back, she hit two home runs.
"It was like riding a bike, I guess," Rick said, laughing.
Up and down
There are just three seniors on YSU's 18-player roster, which helps explain why the Penguins play inconsistent at times. (They combined for five errors in the two games.) But there's a lot of potential.
One of those seniors is the team's best pitcher, Karlie Burnell (8-5), who struggled in the opener, giving up eight runs (six earned) on 10 hits, striking out five and walking three. Freshman pitcher Erin Schindler started the nightcap, giving up five runs (all earned) on six hits in 51/3 innings, striking out five and walking two.
"They just need to understand that they've prepared and stay confident and let their ability take over from there," said Cameron.
Junior McKenzie Bedra hit her sixth home run of the season in the opener, extending her school career record for homers to 20.
scalzo@vindy.com