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Ursuline, S. Range to meet in title game
Photo
From left, McKenzie Stimpert (33), MaKayla Shore (00) and Macey Gunther of Ursuline celebrate after the Irish shut out the Girard Indians, 3-0, on Monday in their Division III district softball semifinal at South Range High School in Green Township. The Irish will face the South Range Raiders in today’s final at South Range.
Ursuline, S. Range to meet in title game
By Steve Wilaj
Green township
Makayla Shore doesn’t want to stray from team philosophy.
But after Ursuline’s 3-0 win over Girard on Monday in a Division III district semifinal at South Range High, the Fighting Irish junior set aside the “one at a time/just another game” mentality and expressed her excitement for the finals matchup against South Range.
The Raiders defeated Newton Falls, 2-1, in nine innings prior to Ursuline’s victory.
“We’re super excited,” Shore said. “We want to just take it one game at a time, but we’re really happy about our position and excited for tomorrow.”
In a rematch of last year’s Division III district championship — which the Irish won — the teams will meet at 5 p.m. today. And they each battled to earn that right on Monday.
Ursuline (17-5-1) got on the board in the bottom of the second with a run-scoring single by Cassandra Hanuschak. The Irish added two more runs in the sixth on an RBI triple by Stephanie Ohalek, who came around to score on an errant throw to third.
Shore tossed seven scoreless innings for the Irish. She struck out four and allowed two hits.
“She mixed it up and hit her spots really well,” Ursuline coach Michael Kernan said. “I wouldn’t say today was an on-day for her, but our defense has been fairly steady behind her and she keeps the hitters off balance.”
The Girard defense, meanwhile, wasn’t as steady. The Indians (10-10) — who started five freshmen — committed five errors behind senior starting pitcher Neco Maderitz .
“Errors cost us all year, but we’re very young,” said Girard coach Renny Paolone said. “So it’s tough, but I’m extremely proud of them. Our future is very bright.”
Maderitz, a Robert Morris recruit, allowed one earned run on five hits. She struck out five. Shore, who doubled, said the Irish knew they had to battle at the plate.
“We just had to stay focused on making that one at-bat be the one difference in the game,” she said. “It worked out well for us.”
The difference maker in South Range’s victory came in the bottom of the ninth when freshman Codi Taylor singled home Jessica Skirpak.
It was the first run for the Raiders (23-5) since Stevie Taylor launched her 15th home run of the season in the first inning.
“[Newton Falls] is good, so this is kind of what you’re expecting,” South Range coach Don Feren said. “There are no easy ones.”
Trailing 1-0, the Tigers tied the game in the fifth on a two-out RBI single by Rhonda Rothaker.
But that’s all Newton Falls (15-7) got against the Raiders’ Caragyn Yanek, who went the distance. She struck out seven, allowed five hits and danced out of danger multiple times.
“You gotta tip your hat to [Yanek], she pitched a heck of a game,” Tigers coach Bill Pelyak said. “But it’s very frustrating. We’ve been here the past three years now and lost games in the bottom of the seventh, one-run games and then this one here today.”
Jenna Ballas took the loss for Newton Falls although she allowed just two runs and struck out six in 82/3 innings.
It may have been a different outcome if not for a diving catch by Raiders center fielder Jordan Youngs with one out and two Tigers runners on base in the top of the eighth. Pelyak called it the difference in the game.
“I’ll talk about it for years to come,” Feren said. “That’s an amazing catch.”