Reserve falls in Div. IV semi, 7-2

It was the third straight year the Blue Devils lost in the regional tournament.

BY WILL HANLON

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

KENT — For the third consecutive season, the Western Reserve High softball team reached the regional level of the OHSAA Division IV tournament. And for the third consecutive season, the Blue Devils were unable to advance, losing to the Strasburg-Franklin Tigers Wednesday, 7-2.

“Well, we didn’t play as well as we could have,” Macy Marra, Western Reserve’s center fielder. “We’re glad to have made it this far and just hope for next year we can get over this hump because we’ve been here three years in a row and we really want to get past regionals. That’d be nice.”

With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the second inning, catcher Kylie Decker of the Tigers doubled with a line drive down the third base line to drive in two runs to put her team on the board first. A bad throw brought in the third run on the same play, bringing Decker to third base.

After a quick 1-2-3 top of the third inning by their defense, the Tigers were quick to strike again, as freshman pitcher Carly Clark hit a two-run homer over the left field fence. First baseman Kristina Polen hit a long drive of her own to deep center field to put the Tigers ahead 6-0.

On the board

Catcher Cassie Zimmerman doubled in the top of the fifth to drive in the Devils’ (19-10) first run of the game, cutting their deficit to five runs.

The Tigers regained that run in the bottom of the fifth, as third baseman Kelsie Locker scored on another Devils error to increase their lead to 7-1.

Senior shortstop McKenzie Mowery was able to squeeze out a run in the top of the sixth due to a Tigers error.

Sophomore pitcher Elizabeth Srock started the game for the Devils, giving up six runs on eight hits through three innings. Teammate junior Brittany Boyer finished the game, giving up just one run and one walk over the next three innings. Srock added two hits, with junior third baseman Ellie Sanders scoring on Zimmerman’s RBI.

The Tigers were led by Clark, who finished the game on the mound giving up just one earned run on four hits and seven strikeouts. Clark and Decker each finished with two RBIs apiece.

“Today, they played a better game than we did,” Western Reserve coach Joe Serensky said. “We had a great season. We picked up momentum; we won 19 of our last 22 games. We were on a nice roll there.

“We knew coming in that Strasburg was a great team and we were going to have our hands full and we had to play a near perfect game if we were going to go out and beat this team.

“The girls didn’t give up. They kept trying to battle away,” Serensky said. “I guess sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the other team.”