43
Champion takes advantage
By doug Chapin
MASSILLON
When a high school softball team reaches the regional level it will take runs just about any way they come.
That was the case on Thursday at Massillon Community Park as Champion High scratched out a gift run in the fifth inning, then junior catcher Sierra Blackson blasted a solo home run for insurance in the sixth as the Golden Flashes defeated East Palestine 2-0 in a Division III regional semifinal.
Champion (21-2) plays Sullivan Black River Saturday at noon in the regional championship game.
“It was a battle. Early in the season we were scoring a lot of runs early in the game. As the season went on it seems it was the fourth or fifth inning before we started putting runs on the board and it was the same today,” Champion coach Cheryl Weaver said.
“I am glad Haley [McAllister] was a very smart base runner … we will take a run however we can get it.”
With one out in the fifth, McAllister turned a short blooper to short centerfield into a double. With two outs, Brooke Culler took a called third strike but East Palestine catcher Nicole Kiehl could not catch the pitch cleanly.
All Kiehl had to do to end the inning was tag Culler or throw to first but instead she threw to third to try to get McAllister who was trying to advance. The throw ended up in left field and McAllister raced home with the go-ahead run.
Blackson blasted her home run to left with one out in the sixth.
“We probably made one bad pitch and we made one bad play in the field,” East Palestine coach Dan McKinstry said. “But they are defending state champs, they’ve won five games 1-0 and they’ve won a bunch of them like that.”
Pitchers Lindsay Swipas and Karly Pence matched zeroes on the scoreboard through four innings. Champion’s Swipas stranded nine Bulldog base runners and struck out nine. She gave up four hits, walked three, and hit two batters. East Palestine had two runners on base in three different innings but Swipas wriggled out of each jam.
Pence had a cleaner score sheet through four innings, benefiting from some outstanding defensive plays on some sharply hit balls. She ended up yielding four hits and striking out four.
The Flashes have won six regional titles (1978, 1980, 1994, 2004, 2006, 2011) and went on to win the state crown in 1978, 1980, 1994 in 2011.
“The girls were relaxed,” Weaver said about her team as the scoreless innings continued. “We came out and we were hitting the ball, it was just we were hitting it right to them. They knew that in time it would find a hole.”
For their part the Bulldogs (21-7) played toe to toe with the defending state champs.
“We weren’t intimidated. I was a little worried about nerves and we may have struck out eight or nine times but I know she’s [Swipas] been striking our 15 and 16,” McKinstry said. “We spent Friday, Monday, yesterday with the pitching machine throwing rise balls up, trying to stay off of it. We had our second pitcher throwing rise balls trying to stay off it.
“It’s hard, but I think the kids battled. I have no complaints, the kids did all you could ask.”