43
Vrabel, Tinkey lead Canfield in AAC
By brandon judeh
Canfield
For four consecutive games Canfield High’s Sarah Vrabel has pitched and won.
Thursday she dominated Struthers (3-4, 1-2) hitters as the Cardinals picked up an 11-1 victory in an All-American Conference softball game.
Vrabel allowed one run on four hits in five innings and struck out eight, but it was her performance in the first and fifth innings that proved to be pivotal.
With the bases loaded and one out in the first, Vrabel went to her fastball and mowed down the next two hitters to escape the inning unscathed.
The fifth inning presented the same situation for Vrabel and again she came through.
Once again the bases were loaded with one out and even though she allowed a run, she was able to strike out a batter and cause a groundout to once again get out of trouble.
“My goal was to go out there and pitch well and make the innings short so the offense could get back on the field,” said Vrabel. “We had a long week and wanted to shorten the game.”
Canfield’s (6-0) offense scored at least one run in each inning, making it easy for Vrabel to relax.
Perhaps the most exciting of those runs came in the third inning when freshman Rachel Tinkey crushed a solo home run over the left-center fence to put the Cardinals on top 3-0. It was her first career varsity home run.
“It felt great, I fouled off the pitch before that so on the next pitch I kept my hands back and sat back on the ball and connected,” said Tinkey.
In the fifth inning the Cardinals pulled away by scoring four runs. Tinkey picked up her third RBI, Gina Mancini knocked in a run and Sydney Opladen capped the inning off with a two-run double.
Opladen’s sacrifice fly in the sixth inning scored a run and ended the game early for Canfield.
“It’s great to be undefeated going into spring break, we always want to go out and put our best game out there every time we hit the field,” Vrabel said.
Things started out well for the Cardinals as Tinkey picked up an RBI and in the second inning Canfield scored a run via a Wildcats’ miscue.
Canfield’s Kaci Hyde showed great athleticism in the fourth inning. After picking up her second hit and RBI of the game she stole second base, then third. Then she made a heads-up play on a dropped ball and scored.
Opladen finished 3 for 3 with three RBIs, and Darby Cockrell tripled and scored a run for the Cardinals.
For the Wildcats, Sarah Sajnovsky had two doubles.