SOFTBALL roundup \ News and notes

Game-ending reactions: Junior catcher Sarah Ingalls celebrated with a leap of joy when Ursuline recorded the final out against Sandy Valley. “I jumped in the air. Once my feet touched the ground, I couldn’t breathe for a second,” she said. It was shock. It’s a great experience.” Senior center fielder Rebecca Hartz said no victory has felt a good as Friday’s 7-1 win over Sandy Valley. “This has to top my list.”

Close calls paid off: Hartz said Ursuline’s tight tournament games against Newton Falls, 1-0), Champion (3-2 in nine innings), Wellington (2-1) and West Salem Northwestern (3-2 in nine innings) benefitted the team. “Those extra-inning games paid off, they’re what made our team so tough,” Hartz said. “The key for us is that we needed to get runners on out of the gate and we got a good start today,” Hartz said. “So I knew it was going to be a good day.”

Leading hitters: Ingalls’ three hits included a three-run homer and a seventh-inning double. Hartz, Krista Byers, Casey Lower and Kelli Kolenich each had two of Ursuline’s 13 hits. “I know we have a good hitting team one through nine and we are capable of hitting the ball but I didn’t think we’d get [13],”Ursuline coach Michael Kernan said. “But we’re happy to get it.”

Final game: Today at 4 p.m. at Akron’s Firestone Stadium, Ursuline (27-6) will play Hebron Lakewood (29-4), the defending state champion. In Friday’s first game, Lakewood beat Columbus Bishop Ready, 4-1. “We’re up for the challenge,” Kernan said. “This is the game we’ve played for all year. We had [this] goal at the beginning of the year [because] we think we have a team capable enough to compete for the state title. But it’s a long road and you’ve got to get some breaks, and we’ve had them.”

Irish bench: Kernan was able to utilize his entire bench. Freshman Brianna Curd, who injured her arm in a recent game against Poland, was a courtesy runner for Ingalls. Sophomores Teresa Carkido and Haley Sturtz and freshman Erin Vukovich were pinch-hitters while junior Chelsea Kernan was a pinch-hitter and courtesy runner for Lower.

Another view: Sandy Valley coach Jill Williams said her starter, Allyssa Lancaster, struggled as the game progressed. “The third time around, they started hitting the ball and it’s hard to keep a team off-balance the longer they see your pitcher,” Williams said. “They were definitely hitting the ball hard and that was the difference [along with] their team speed [which] hurt us a lot because it put a lot more pressure on us. Defensively, we had to move in a little bit more than we like.”

Tom Williams