Southeast ousts Struthers in softball

By john bassetti

bassetti@vindy.com

struthers

Two strong pitching and defensive efforts kept the hits few and the runs low, but Southeast made plays when it counted on Saturday to beat Struthers, 3-1, in a Division II sectional final at Mauthe Park.

Tricia Williams’ solo home run in the first inning and Emily Gahagan’s two-run homer in the fourth provided the runs for Southeast (18-3). Kayla Williams (15-3) struck out seven as the Pirates advance to the district.

She dueled against Struthers’ Ashley Baron (19-3), who gave up just five hits for the Wildcats (20-5) who completed their first 20-win season.

“Kayla is a strong-willed person and nothing will faze her and she’s just going to do her job,” Southeast coach Dave Dubinsky said of his junior pitcher.

The home runs weren’t an anomaly.

“We had six kids put them out this year,” Dubinsky said. “We usually hit pretty good line drives and we’re a good-contact hitting team.

“Both of those girls [Tricia Williams and Gahagan] hit them out before. They were able to jump on them [Baron’s pitches] and we got them up in the wind-stream and that helped. We’ll take it.”

While Southeast was slowly doing damage, offensively, its defense was also hurting Struthers.

One glaring example was in the fourth inning after Katie Jordon had already scored.

Jordan’s hit came when Southeast’s right fielder, Tori Sigworth, slipped while initially approaching the fly ball. Jordon then scored on Baron’s slow-rolling groundout to first to bring the Wildcats within 3-1.

With one out, Mandy Ditman dropped a fly between in left-center field for a double and Jackie Deem hit a line drive that went over the shortstop Kayla Carson’s head to give the Wildcats a real threat.

Dana Mathews then hit a blooper that left-fielder Danielle Stropki raced to catch before whipping the ball to second base where Emily Gahagan was waiting to nab Ditman to end the inning.

“We had a bad baserunnning mistake with one out,” Struthers coach Anthony Gentile said. “She could have taken three or four steps off with enough to get back. But she got out too far in no-man’s land and got doubled-up [by Stropki].”

Struthers also stranded Rachel Affagato in the fifth inning after the sophomore designated-hitter slapped a pitch to right field where it deflected off of Sigworth’s glove.

Gentile couldn’t ignore the Kayla Williams factor.

“She was throwing outside corner pitches and we were trying to make an adjustment, but we weren’t hitting the balls.”

Of the Southeast homers being the only dents in Struthers’ armor, Gentile said: “We haven’t played in a week, but they hit the ball well. Those two hits hurt us.”

Gentile was buoyed by the school’s first 20-win season for softball, but he was disappointed otherwise.

“I felt we could have moved on,” Struthers’ fourth-year coach said.

Baron credited her defense for keeping a lid on Southeast, but pinned the long balls on herself.

“I really haven’t given up many home runs, but I just grooved [down the middle of the plate] a lot of balls today and I usually don’t. I was off.”

Stropki’s play was a dagger, Baron said.

“We just fell short, but they made some great plays, too,” she said of the left-fielder’s catch in the fourth.

Jordon and Deem both finished with two hits.

Baron, along with Ditman, Mathews and Hanna Dubec, symbolized softball athletes who were also on a successful basketball team that was one win away from state a few months ago.

“Softball was a great experience, especially because we went far in basketball and thought we’d go far again in softball.”