Seniors know way to Massillon

By Tom Williams

“This team is amazing. We’ve been through so much — we started in December with conditioning and we’ve grown so well as a team.” - Miranda Carkido, Ursuline senior

Ursuline softball players Miranda Carkido and Rebecca Hartz are making their fourth regional trip.

YOUNGSTOWN — When it comes to regional softball appearances, Ursuline High seniors Miranda Carkido and Rebecca Hartz are queens of the Mahoning Valley.

Thursday at 5 p.m. at Massillon’s Genshaft Park, their Irish will participate in their fourth straight Division III regional tournament.

Carkido, who plays second base, and Hartz, who patrols center field and is a speed demon on the basepath, have been members of all four teams.

“It’s just so exciting to go back again,” said Carkido who plans to attend Youngstown State University and will try out for the Penguins’ softball team. “We’ve worked so hard for it, so to go to regionals again this year is so exciting.

“I’ve worked hard all four year and I know that Red has, too,” Carkido said.

With graduation looming, the red-haired Hartz said, “This one is so much more meaningful because it’s our senior year. We want to get it done. We’ve been to regionals three years — we need to get it done.”

Carkido said this regional berth “is 10 times more special because it’s my senior year, it’s my last chance to go to state on a high school softball team. And I really want it.”

Their first task will be to defeat Wellington (21-6), the 2008 state runner-up who advanced with a 1-0 win over Columbia.

Ursuline (24-5) also knows a thing or two about tight ballgames. The Irish won the Lisbon district with a nine-inning 3-2 victory over Champion.

Hartz scored twice against the Golden Flashes, including the game-winning run. She opened the ninth inning with a sharp bunt that induced an error. Then she raced to third base when it was unguarded during Kelli Kolenich’s sacrifice bunt.

Casey Lower’s sacrifice bunt brought Hartz home with Ursuline’s third run.

“She’s won us a lot of games with her speed this year,” Ursuline coach Michael Kernan said of Hartz who usually bats fifth. “Great senior, great leader.”

Carkido, who sometimes hits cleanup, said softball dominates their lives.

“This team is amazing,” Carkido said. “We’ve been through so much — we started in December with conditioning and we’ve grown so well as a team.”

Kernan said that Hartz and Carkido didn’t miss one conditioning session.

“We’re diehard softball players,” Carkido said. “When it’s softball season, it’s softball. We wake up early, we go to practice.

“We’re there, we’re cheering our team on, we’re getting everybody pumped up for games.”

One of the biggest changes they’ve noticed is the development of Lower, the junior whose pitching arm has led the Irish for three seasons.

Lower wears protective head gear when she throws and rarely is heard during a game.

“Everybody fears The Mask,” Hartz laughed. Asked what it’s like step in the batter’s box against The Mask in practice, Hartz replied, “No, we don’t do that any more.”

Hartz and Carkido says the quiet Lower has her animated moments.

“She always has these little jokes that she tells, little comments that just make you laugh,” Hartz said. “You just have to look and laugh at her. There’s no other way to describe it.”

Carkido said it wasn’t always that way.

“When we first met her, she was probably the quietest person that I’ve ever met,” Carkido said. “But after her freshman year and we started conditioning, she got so loud.

“And we were like, seriously, ‘Casey, where did this come from? You never talk, you don’t have a voice, you sit there and do your homework, you go to practice ... and then all of the sudden you are talking like crazy. Like, where did this come from?’

“She is so quiet but she is a little clumsy, but it’s OK. We love her,” Carkido said.

Clumsy? Not on the mound, right?.

“Well, the other day, she did say that she tripped a couple of times but we didn’t catch it,” Carkido said of a missed opportunity for teasing.

Lower welcomes the camaraderie.

“One great thing about Ursuline is that the teams are always close but this year it feels exceptionally close,” Lower said. “We’re a family.”

With a big smile, Lower (23-5) said her goal is to remain expressionless when pitching.

“I don’t smile during the game,” Lower said.

Ursuline supporters hope she’s flashing a grin after regional competition begins.

williams@vindy.com