Saturday, May 24, 2008
By Greg Gulas
The Eagles blanked East Canton, 2-0, on Rachel Pico’s three-hitter.
CORTLAND — Jack Pico claims that his daughter Rachel’s arm can easily throw up 200 pitches in a game.
Rachel says that while she would rather rest her arm between starts, pitching on consecutive days has its advantages, even if you don’t throw 200 total pitches in back-to-back outings.
Either way, it was Pico’s performance on the hill that left East Canton batters in awe of her mound savvy.
Pico, a junior, scattered three hits and struck out 16 Friday to lead the Warren JFK High softball team over the Hornets, 2-0, to capture the Division IV district championship at Lakeview High.
The Eagles (18-4) will make their second regional trip in school history when them meet the winner of the Ashland district next Wednesday in Kent.
“I stuck mainly with my riser and inside fastball because they were working for me all game,” she said. “I try to take a day off between starts however, working two days in a row does have its advantages.
“The work will help prepare me for summer ball and also for my traveling team when I will need to pitch on consecutive days.”
Between Pico and Hornets freshman Liticia Bittinger, the two mound foes struck out the first eight batters of the game and pretty much set the tone that a run or two might be enough for either team to win.
The Eagles took note of the message.
With the game scoreless until the bottom of the third inning, Kei Kei Harris walked to open JFK’s half of the inning, was sacrificed to second by Morgan Piacquadio and later scored on J.K. Kolovich’s single.
The game remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth when Harris again walked to open the inning, stole second and with two outs and scored on Alex Raeburn’s RBI single to left.
“We stranded too many runners for my liking today, but our defense came up big when they needed to so in addition to Rachel’s [Pico] performance on the mound, that was the overall story for us,” JFK coach Joe Sylvester said. “East Canton is an excellent defensive team so give them credit as well. They hit a couple of long balls but to our outfielder’s credit, they prevented them from scoring.
“It only gets tougher for us now as we head to regional play. We’ll just continue to practice and do the same things that we have done all season long in order to get ready for next Wednesday,” he added.
Other than an infield single with two outs in the second inning and a one out triple in the third frame, the Hornets’ biggest scoring threat came in their final at bat.
Catcher Cecily Garrett led off the seventh inning with a gap shot up the left-centerfield alley, but was stranded as Pico proceeded to set down the final three batters of the game on strikes.
“We didn’t do the little things at the plate today, nor did we execute offensively when we had the opportunity to make some noise. We’re solid defensively and we’ve been able to manufacture runs over the course of the season, but it just didn’t happen for us today,” said Hornets coach Jerry Reynolds, whose team finished 16-11. “We make no excuses because JFK is an excellent club and deserved to win. We lose five seniors, three of whom started but with only one player, Heidi Vacco, beginning the season as the only one with starting experience, you can understand our cautious optimism already for next season.”