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Western Reserve Srocks it to ITCL rival Lowellville
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Western Reserve's Taylor Young prepares for imapact and holds on to the ball forcing Lowellville's Brooke Pallozzi out at second base during the top of the third inning on Tuesday afternoon.
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Western Reserve's pitcher, Elizabeth Srock, makes contact with the ball durng the bottom of the fourth inning on Tuesday afternoon.
Senior Elizabeth Srock allowed three hits in five innings of a 9-0 victory.
BERLIN CENTER — Western Reserve pitcher Elizabeth Srock never took a warm up pitch prior to taking the mound each inning for the Blue Devils.
Never has this season.
Obviously the senior didn’t need to as she pitched her second shutout in two days against the Lowellville Rockets in an Inter Tri-County league contest on Tuesday.
Srock gave up three hits and struck out nine batters in only five innings as the Blue Devils remained undefeated in league play with a 9-0 win over the Rockets.
Srock (9-2), a three-year starter on the mound, pitched the Devils (12-4, 11-0) to an 11-0 win over Lowellville on Monday.
“I’ve been battling tendinitis,” Srock said. “I’ve felt pretty good this year but I don’t want to take any chances so I try to throw as little as I can in a game.
“I’m always ready to go anyway.”
The way Srock performed on the mound and the way her teammates smacked around 15 hits, it looked like the Blue Devils are ready to capture another league title.
Western Reserve won league championships in 2003 and 2007 and won Division IV district titles in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
“We had a great team effort tonight and all season,” said Western Reserve coach Joe Serensky. “Everything was working for us tonight.
“We got some timely hits and didn’t swing at many bad pitches. We are starting to show that we can be a strong offensive team.”
The Blue Devils can wrap up an ITCL championship by winning one of its remaining three league games.
Western Reserve’s losses have been to powers Boardman, Ursuline, Springfield and ITCL Tier One champion Lisbon.
In the other dugout, veteran coach Bill Amero wasn’t enjoying losing two straight games to the Blue Devils but he has been pleasantly surprised about his Rockets fortunes this season.
Amero is in his first season at Lowellville (10-6, 5-5) after guiding Boardman for the past 12 years.
Amero won one state championship and four regional titles while at Boardman.
He also won eight district championships and five Steel Valley Conference titles.
Lowellville is suffering growing pains according to Amero, but 10 wins with just one senior on the squad is impressive in his first season with the Rockets.
“We had a nice winning streak in the middle of the season,” Amero said. “But with young programs, you are going to take one step forward and two steps back.
“But we’ve made some nice progress.”
The Rockets have 10 freshmen and eight sophomores on its softball roster.
Western Reserve features six standout seniors and scored in every inning off Lowellville pitcher Cori Pavlicko (10-6).
Catcher Chelsea Korda led the 15-hit Blue Devil attack with three hits, including a double and triple, and drove in four runs.
Designated hitter Sarah Hull also drove in three runs with a single and a sacrifice fly.
Junior Ashley Grim (3-2) pitched the final two innings in relief of Srock and allowed only one hit.