PREP ROUNDUp \ News and notes

Graduation day: Seven Springfield High baseball players graduated Sunday, a day after Springfield lost in the state championship baseball game — Travis Richey, Todd Kibby, Bryan Visingardi, Frank Sferra, Eric Lipp, Joey Musial and Erik Birmingham. Musial was chosen by students as the school’s male Athlete of the year for his letter-winning achievement (three football, two basketball, two track, one baseball) and National Honor Society status.

Avoiding trouble: In Saturday’s 3-1 loss, the left-on-base numbers (Patrick Henry 12, Springfield 4) validated the contention that Springfield pitchers minimized Patrick Henry’s potent offense.

Family ties: Some tidbits from athletic director Jeff Dyer: the mother of Todd Kibby was a statistician on the Tigers’ 1980 team that reached the Class AA championship game before losing to Reading, 10-5. “She’s in the team photo,” Dyer said of Cindy Ross, who eventually married Jeff Kibby. The starting catcher for the 1980 team was Jeff Phillips, who is now an assistant football coach for his brother, Tom, at Pickerington North. Ironically, the parents of Springfield’s current starting catcher, Matt Semach, purchased the house in which the Phillips’ grew up.

Final game: The Ursuline High softball team’s 5-0 loss to Hebron Lakewood on Saturday was the final varsity game for Ursuline senior second baseman Miranda Carkido. “We were hoping for [a title but] it just didn’t happen. They got the big hit when they needed it,” said Carkido, referring to Alissa Birkhimer’s bases-loaded double in the fifth inning.

Scoreless: Lakewood senior third baseman Emily Voehringer said she feels the Lancers didn’t get rattled by the 0-0 score in the fifth inning. “[The longer we] don’t score, we’re going to get frustrated but [had] to not take it to heart. We had to keep thinking that we still have at-bats left.”

John Bassetti, Tom Williams