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Ursuline softball survives scare from Fitch
By Steve WILAJ
AUSTINTOWN
Finally, Jordyn Keneally felt nervous.
The Ursuline freshman pitcher remained cool as she danced in and out of danger all game, but when Austintown Fitch loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh inning and brought the winning run to the plate, Keneally began to feel the pressure.
“Just a little bit at that point,” she admitted.
But she didn’t crack.
Keneally forced Fitch’s Julia McMenamin to ground out to second base, clinching a 4-1 Irish win on Monday at Fitch High. The freshman went all seven innings as she struck out nine, walked four and allowed five hits.
“Her composure was excellent,” Ursuline coach Mike Kernan said. “When we got to that last inning and she walked the first batter — other than that I don’t think she was fazed a bit. She stepped up to the occasion and had a great maturity-inning, I guess you can call it.”
The Falcons (1-2) loaded the bases on a Christina Tucker walk and singles by Alysa Winterburn and Ashlea Hawryluk. But just like the third, fourth and sixth inning, Fitch left its runners stranded.
“It’s frustrating in a sense that I know that we can get those clutch hits,” Falcons coach Steve Ward said. “We’re very young — we have just two returning starters from last year — and we just didn’t do it today. But we will get to the point of doing it, there’s no doubt in my mind.”
Ursuline (4-3) notched some clutch hits after Fitch took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a McMenamin RBI single.
The Irish immediately answered in the top of the fourth when Zoie Amatore and Lorraine Fitzgerald each recorded run-scoring doubles. The score stayed 2-1 until the top of the seventh when Chloe Cruz’s double brought home two more runs.
“We have a solid lineup that will put the bat on the ball,” Kernan said. “We’ve been doing it since the beginning of the season and we continued to do it here. One through nine, anyone can get a clutch hit and it was evident today.”
Christina Xenakis also had two hits for Ursuline. The Fitch offense was paced by McMenamin’s two hits, including a double.
While the Falcons couldn’t get the big hit they needed, the pitching of Alex Franken and Sierra Pierce gave them a chance.
Franken worked four innings before exiting after being hit with a line drive. She allowed two runs on five hits, while Pierce followed and surrendered two runs (one earned) in three innings.
“I was very pleased with our pitching. It kept us in the game and if a couple hits dropped our way, it’s a different ball game,” Ward said. “One big thing I harp since we’re young is that we have to grow through the experiences.”