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Poland tries to snare Muskies
By TOM WILLIAMS
POLAND
Photo
Poland pitcher Erin Gabriel
The Poland High softball team hits Akron today for the state tournament with Ohio’s top ranking in Division II.
The Bulldogs (29-1) are taking nothing for granted as they prepare to play New Concord John Glenn (27-3), winners of the Pickerington regional tournament.
“Obviously they can hit the ball or they wouldn’t be where they are at,” Poland High coach Reid Lamport said of the Muskies who boast a decent pitcher and speed.
“She’s good,” Lamport said of senior pitcher Rachel Townsend. “She moves the ball, she likes to spin it off the plate a little bit.
“We know they have three slappers on their team including the first two hitters,” Lamport said. “They try to set the table.”
Because the Muskies favor the slap bunt, the Bulldogs have spent time this week working on a plan.
“We know that they have two fast left slappers so we’ve come up with a good defense to be able to stop them from either advancing [someone] to second or just getting to first,” senior center fielder Jordan Palumbo said.
Senior first baseman Nicole White called John Glenn “a good team — when you get to the Final Four, everyone is good. You can’t look past anyone.
“We tried to work in a [defensive] play, work around the slapping [to avoid] getting them on base.”
Junior right fielder Adriana Sikora said the Bulldogs must “try to keep the focus on us. We don’t try to concern ourselves too much about what we’ll be facing, we just try to focus to make sure that our skills are good enough.”
So far, the Bulldogs’ success has been the best in Northeast Ohio. Poland has played a tough schedule loaded with Division I opponents. Their only loss came in April against Pickerington Central.
“We had 12 hits in that game,” Lamport said. “We’d love to play them again.”
The Muskies will be trying to solve a puzzle that no other Poland opponent has — how to beat sophomore pitcher Erin Gabriel (21-0). In five tournament games, Gabriel has thrown three no-hitters and a five-inning perfect game where she struck out all 15 batters.
The only postseason team to get hits off Gabriel was Tallmadge, which managed three in a 12-2 loss. All three hits came after the Bulldogs had jumped out to a 7-0 lead.
“We know a lot of teams are going to try and bunt and slap their way on against Erin,” Lamport said.
The Muskies will have their hands full trying to stop the Bulldogs’ 3-4-5 hitters: sophomore third baseman Jenna Modic, Sikora and White.
Sikora enjoys batting behind Modic, the Bulldogs’ top hitter.
“It’s definitely exciting because most of the time she’ll come up with a big hit and get you into the spirit of wanting to get a big hit, too,” Sikora said.
White said capping her career at state “is such a great feeling — there’s nothing more that you want than to end your senior year at state.
“To end it with a state championship would be great.”
Hirschbeck agreed:
“Two more games and we can be state champions,” she said. “It’s pretty exciting.”