Dominance on the diamond
Champion, Mathews and Poland softball teams advance to state
Staff report
AKRON
Just like last year, the Mahoning Valley is sending three teams to the state softball competition at Firestone Stadium.
Poland and Champion will be defending their 2011 championships in Divisions II and III.
Mathews, in Div. IV, has qualified for state for the first time.
The marquee matchup will be played on Friday at 12:30 p.m. when Poland (27-2) takes on LaGrange Keystone in a rematch of last year’s Div. II state title game.
Senior pitcher Erin Gabriel says the Bulldogs are prepared for the challenge.
“It makes us feel great because they’ve wanted us since last season, so we are ready for them,” said Gabriel (16-1), a four-year varsity starter.
Poland is making its third straight state appearance. In 2010, it lost to Hebron Lakewood, 1-0, in the championship game.
Last year, Poland defeated Keystone, 4-0, to win the school’s first state title in softball.
Saturday, Poland qualified by defeating Akron Hoban, 7-0.
“We hit the ball hard,” said Poland coach Reid Lamport, who will be making his fourth trip to state. The first one was in 2001.
“It’s different,” Lamport said of this trip. “The first time, I jumped into my assistant coach’s arms and ran around the field because we really didn’t have any expectations.
“Now, we do have expectations. We expected to win this game — not cocky, but confident,” Lamport said. “The girls came in very confident, knew what they had to do and they took care of business.”
In Massillon, Champion advanced with a 1-0 victory over Sullivan Black River. Sierra Blackson’s RBI single in the seventh inning scored Brooke Culler with the only run.
It will be the fourth trip to state since 2004 for Champion coach Cheryl Weaver.
“I just had a feeling we were in for a battle,” said Weaver who has seen a lot of low-scoring games this season.
“That’s probably about four or five games of one-nothing this year,” Weaver said. “As you move on, you’re going to face the better teams and I’ll tell you what, they were a good team. I was very impressed.”
Thursday at 5:30 p.m., Champion will face undefeated Felecity-Franklin (24-0).
“There’s some tough teams,” said Weaver of the final week of the season. “We just have to take it one game at a time, that’s what we’ve been doing. We can’t look past the next stop.
“We’re trying to climb that ladder one rung at a time.”
Winning pitcher Lindsay Swipas (20-2) says the Flashes are “really excited, a lot of positive emotion.”
They did leave seven runners on base in Saturday’s regional final. Losing many of their big bats from last year’s championship team was a concern, but the Flashes make do.
“The thing that worried me was having the bases loaded twice,” Champion’s senior pitcher said. “That was real nerve-wracking stranding them.”
Unlike the Poland and Champion pitchers, Mathews’ Cheyenne Eggens just turned 15 as she completes her freshman year.
“Her age doesn’t bother us,” junior Tabby Granelly said. “She doesn’t let it come in to play that she’s young. She just goes out there and plays like the rest of us.”
The Mustangs (24-5), who are led by first-year head coach Jim Nicula, will open the state tournament on Thursday at 10 a.m. against Covington (25-4).
Sportswriters Tom Williams and Matthew Peaslee contributed to this report.