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Flashes bounce back
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Champion’s Sierra Blackson (1) slides safely into second base after Niles McKinley’s Brooke Lawson (9) misses the tag during Thursday’s softball game at Waddell Park in Niles. The Golden Flashes blanked the Red Dragons, 14-0.
Champion responds in a big way after a rare loss
BY Doug Chapin
NILES
It has been a long time since the Champion High softball team has had to bounce back from a defeat.
The Golden Flashes did it with style Thursday evening at Waddell Park with a 14-0 no-hit victory over McKinley High. Pitchers Lindsay Swipas and Kayla Hunt combined on a no-hitter, striking out a combined 13 Niles hitters.
The early-season game took on added significance after Champion, coming off an undefeated state championship season, lost on Wednesday to Brookfield.
“I told them you go out there and you show them what you’re made of,” Flashes coach Cheryl Weaver said. “People talk and you feel down so you go out there and you make up for it.
“Yes, we looked at this game a little differently but it’s still early in the season.”
The Golden Flashes (2-1) lost three starters — shortstop Tawny Rogers, catcher Taylor Petersall and left-fielder Taryn Hanna — from 2011 when Champion captured its fourth state title and finished 27-0.
The previous season, Champion was 26-2 and lost in the regional semifinal to Jeromesville Hillsdale, the Golden Flashes’ last defeat until Wednesday. The last regular-season loss for Champion was May 15, 2010, 5-4 to Ashtabula Edgewood.
The Flashes bounced back from that defeat with district tournament victories over Pymatuning Valley and Regina to reach the regional.
On Thursday, Swipas hit a Niles batter and walked another in the first inning, the only Red Dragons (1-1) to reach base. Of the nine outs the senior ace recorded, eight came by strikeout. Hunt, a junior, followed suit with five strikeouts over two innings.
“I think we need to be a little more focused,” Weaver said when asked how the 2012 Flashes can have as much success as the previous season’s club. “Last year’s team was so strong and fluid all the way around. Now it’s like we’ve had to change positions. My second baseman moved to shortstop, my center fielder is at second.
“There have been a lot of changes and now we’ve got to get back into that fluid motion where we were as a team last year. We’ve got to get used to girls in different positions, people react a little differently.”
Cleanup hitter Alison Sorber, along with Swipas and Haley McAllister the only seniors on the team, led the way Thursday with four RBIs on a double and two singles. Swipas, batting in the leadoff spot, also had three hits to go with three runs batted in. The Flashes scored three times in the first inning and five times in the second.