DiDomenico no-hits Olmsted Falls

Photo by: Lindsay McCall

Special to the Vindicator

Photo

The Boardman Spartans earned another Division I district softball title on Saturday behind pitcher Alex DiDomenico, who threw a no-hitter against the North Olmsted Bulldogs at the Field of Dreams in Boardman.

By Jon Moffett

jmoffett@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

There is only one word to describe the performance by Alex DiDomenico and the Boardman softball team in their district championship game on Saturday.

DiDominating.

The standout senior pitcher struck out a career-best 19 batters and didn’t allow a hit in Saturday’s Division I district title game, earning her third gold medal with a 4-0 victory. The Spartans will make its third trip to the regional tournament in as many years.

DiDomenico said it has been the team goal to get back to the regional tournament where the Spartans (15-7) have fallen in the title game the past two years. DiDomenico said she hopes the third time is the charm. But she knows the road will only get more difficult the longer the trip.

“It’s important to never relax because the competition is just going to get better and better the longer we go,” DiDomenico said. “And I think it’s really important to this team because we’ve been to the regional finals and we’ve let go a little bit.

“So we really have to stay focused a little bit longer and hopefully make it to the state tournament this year,” she said.

The Spartans now it won’t be an easy road. But if DiDomenico can be half as dominating as she was against the Bulldogs (14-7), things will be a little easier.

Boardman might as well have had three blind mice in the outfield since there was little action past the infield. As it was, the Spartans opted instead to go with Kayleigh Huck, Danielle Petrus and Alex DeFabio.

Petrus scored a pair of runs for the Spartans — one on a double by DiDomenico and the other on a base hit by Missy DeMarinis — but had an otherwise boring day.

As DiDomenico’s center fielder, Petrus knew she wasn’t really going to be a big part of the plans as long as, well, things went according to plan.

Petrus made a grand total of one play — she caught the final out of the day. It was the only ball the Bulldogs hit out of the infield.

Heck, it was one of the only balls the Bulldogs hit at all.

So without a lot to keep her brain occupied, it would probably be easy to take a nap out in no-woman’s land with her ace pitching, right?

“Oh no way,” Petrus said. “Knowing my luck, the ball would be hit right at me and then we would lose the game,” she said.

Petrus said she knew that if she had not caught the ball and lost the no-no for DiDomenico, it would not have been pretty.

But her teammates would forgive her, right?

“Yeah, not really,” the senior said. “I would probably be shunned.”

Petrus was more serious when she talked about her and her classmates wanting to advance to the state tournament before their high school careers end. So was Brooke Meenachan.

“I mean, this is very important to me and to all of us,” said Meenachan, who will continue her softball career at Youngstown State next fall. “It’s my senior year and we’ve been trying to do this for the past three years. This just has to be the year we get over the hump.”

So they all have to stay focused. Like Petrus.

“Oh I’ve totally seen her snoozing a couple of times out there. And she absolutely snores, too.”