Ursuline rolls, 8-0, behind Lower's arm

By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BEAVER TOWNSHIP -- When a team scores two runs without benefit of a hit in the first inning, it's a pretty good sign things are going its way.
"Pretty much," agreed Ursuline senior third baseman Natalie Palermo after the Irish defeated East Palestine, 8-0, Tuesday in a Division III district softball semifinal at South Range Complex.
Ursuline (19-6), which is going for its fourth regional appearance in the six years that Mike Kernan has been coach, took advantage of nine East Palestine errors.
"We just capitalized," said Palermo, who added that the Irish are feeling some pressure because "we're expected to win."
Today at 5 p.m., the state-ranked Irish will play Waterloo (16-5), which advanced to the title game by defeating Lisbon, 3-2.
The Bulldogs, the Inter Tri-County Leaguer Tier One champions, were in trouble from the start when they made four errors in the first inning.
Miscues bring in runs
Those miscues allowed Mary Hendricks and Dominique Bonamase to score for the Steel Valley Conference champion Irish.
"We wanted to score early to kind of put the pressure on them," Kernan said. "We were fortunate to get some breaks early and get a couple of runs ... that took a lot of pressure off of us."
Palermo said the success of the 2005 LaBrae and 2006 Champion teams that qualified for state in Div. III is inspiration for the Irish.
"It's a lot of motivation," Palermo said. "We want to pick up where they left off and finish the job by hopefully winning state.
"Coach says being state-ranked means nothing -- it's coming here and showing what we can do that counts," said Palermo, who had two of Ursuline's nine hits.
Freshman pitcher Casey Lower (17-4) scattered four East Palestine hits and struck out six for the shutout. She also had three hits.
"She's not like a freshman -- she's just amazing," Palermo said. "She doesn't have the mentality of a freshman at all."
May be best squad
Kernan said that he believes that this year's squad may be his best.
"I'm not sure that we have put a whole package together like this since I've been here," Kernan said. "We've had some good teams that have won district championships, but there is something here about this team that is a little special."
East Palestine pitcher Chelsea Peterson didn't surrender a hit until the third inning. Angelina Joseph and Palermo singled to open the frame then scored on Lower's two-out single for a 5-0 lead. Jessica Yarab tripled in a run.
Palermo and Lower had RBI singles in the sixth inning when the Irish scored three more runs.
Waterloo 3, Lisbon 2
Lisbon (15-6) was also in trouble from the beginning when Waterloo's leadoff batter Mallory Derbfoss walked, took second on Missy Zehnder's bloop singled and scored on Sara Shields' double.
The Blue Devils caught a break when the ball bounced over the center-field fence, keeping Zehnder at third base.
Tiffany Ruggles hit the ball sharply to shortstop Katie Ketchum who saw Zehnder had wandered off third base and threw home to initiate a successful rundown play.
"She does a real nice job of knowing what the situation is," Lisbon coach Dave Crismon said. "In a game like this, she knew every run was big. When she got the ball and saw [Zehnder] was off, she ran right at her to make the play.
"It was a big, big out to get at the time because we could have gone down 2-0 right off the bat," Crismon said.
Snoddy ends threat
Instead, Lisbon pitcher Erica Snoddy struck out Alyssa Lane to end the threat and keep the game tight.
The Vikings (16-5) added two runs when Carli Willis and Derbfoss singled to open the fifth inning. After Ashley Beans' sacrifice, both scored on Shields' second hit.
The Blue Devils scored twice in the sixth inning when Erica Sims walked, Ketchum doubled and Snoddy hit a sacrifice fly.
"Way too many strikeouts today," said Crismon after Lane whiffed 11 Blue Devils. "Too many strikeouts looking. That's disappointing because we're a veteran team.
"Their pitcher did what she had to do -- we were not laying off the high strike," Crismon said. "We kind of fell into her hands."