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Poland’s Meredith Tesone (2) narrowly avoids being tagged out as Canfield shortstop Rachel Tinkey fields a line drive during the Division II district final softball game Wednesday at Alliance High School. Tinkey had two hits for the Cardinals, who lost to the Bulldogs, 8-1. Poland starting pitcher Erin Gabriel, the reigning Ohio Player of the Year, dominated the Cardinals with a complete game that included 15 strikeouts.
Gabriel whiffs 15 in Poland rout
By ryan buck
ALLIANCE
Defeating an archrival is a wonderful feeling. Doing it with the district tournament championship on the line feels even better.
The Poland High Softball team accomplished both feats Wednesday, taking down Canfield 8-1 in the Division II district final at Alliance High School.
Bulldogs starter Erin Gabriel, the reigning Ohio Player of the Year, dominated the Cardinals with a complete game, 15 strikeout performance.
“I had a little more incentive coming out, I’m not going to lie, just because it’s our rival,” Gabriel said. “But it’s always a good game when we play them.
“I have a lot of respect for them, they’re a good opponent.”
Poland (24-2), the defending Div. II state champion, captured its fourth consecutive district title and ninth straight win over the Cardinals (19-7). Canfield’s last win over Poland came in the Div. II district final in 2008, a 3-2 victory in Jefferson. Canfield went on to win the state title.
This game was business as usual for Coach Reid Lamport’s team.
“They came here really focused,” Lamport said of his battle-tested team. “They came today like they expected to win. Not a cockiness, but a confidence.”
The Bulldogs jumped on Canfield starter Sarah Vrabel with three runs in the first inning. Marissa Trevis and Jenna Modic singled and scored. Gabriel reached base as well before Kalie Benson’s double just inside the right-field line gave Poland a critical 3-0 lead.
“We knew Canfield was going to come out fired up because we’re a big rival and we’ve beaten them the past four years, we’ve been undefeated, and so they have that extra fire to come out and play us,” said Modic, who will suit up for Miami University next season. “Our goal was to start off early and those runs were huge for us.”
Gabriel, coming off two tournament starts without allowing a hit, befuddled the Canfield offense, who had plated 25 runs in their previous two tournament games.
The Tennessee-bound senior didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning.
“She’ll take you to a 3-0 count and come back and beat you,” first-year Canfield coach Ray Melewski said. “Like I told the girls the first times we played them: Erin throws change-ups for strikes.
“We can’t let her take the bat out of our hands by looking at third strikes. She keeps you off-balance.”
With Gabriel cruising, Poland added to their lead in the third. Modic scored her second run in another three-run inning, putting the game out of reach.
“Especially when we went up six runs; we’ve never lost a game with her pitching. No team’s come back and scored seven. It’s just never happened,” Lamport said.
Maura Bobby’s fourth-inning bunt single and run was the Bulldogs’ seventh. Benson’s second RBI-double rounded out the scoring an inning later.
Canfield pushed its lone run across in the top of the seventh. Kayley Keller’s line drive to right shot past the Poland outfield to score Laura Beck.
Freshman shortstop Rachel Tinkey had two hits for the Cardinals.