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Champion’s Gardiner tames Poland bats
By Tom Williams
LIBERTY
What started out as a pitchers’ duel between two of the Mahoning Valley’s stronger softball teams devolved into an unusual bloops-and-bloopersfest.
“We had way too many errors and you just can’t do that against a good team like Champion,” said Poland head coach Matt Campbell after Friday’s 7-4 loss at the Mahoning Valley Invitational at Liberty Township Park.
The Bulldogs (14-6) and Golden Flashes (17-4) each committed four errors, uncharacteristic for teams highly seeded for next week’s tournament.
“[When you have] close games against tough teams, make it a learning process,” Champion coach Cheryl Weaver said. “This is what you’re going to face if you move on.
“Errors are going to happen,” Weaver said. “Hopefully we’ve worked them out.”
What’s interesting about the two All-American Conference teams (White Division for Poland, Blue for Champion) is both alternate starting pitchers (Haylee Gardiner and Mckenzie Zigmont for Champion, Ally Deemer and Kristyn Svetlak for Poland).
Gardiner (9-2) retired the first 10 batters she faced. Then things became interesting when Amanda Wire sent a hard shot up the middle that struck Gardiner’s left foot.
“I’m not going to lie, it stings a little bit,” Gardiner (9-2) said. “I don’t let little things like that bother me, try to be tough out there.”
Gardiner remained on the mound, which didn’t surprised the Bulldogs.
“Easily, one of the top two or three pitchers we’ve faced this year,” Campbell said. “She mixes her pitches well and that riseball had us chasing early on.”
Trailing 5-0 when Wire became the first baserunner, the Bulldogs made things interesting. Deemer’s bloop single and an error brought Wire home. Brielle Nocera and Chloe Bush singled for another run and Svetlak (5-4) connected for a two-out single to score Bush with Poland’s third run.
In the fifth inning, Champion’s lead increased to 7-3 after Megan Turner and Molly Williams scored with the benefit of two errors.
The Bulldogs weren’t through, loading the bases in the sixth and seventh innings.
Gardiner escaped the first threat by striking out lead-off hitter Claire Testa. Campbell took responsibility for the final out. After Deemer scored on Svetlak’s RBI single, Campbell sent Nocera home where she was tagged out by Williams.
Gardiner said Poland “is one of my favorite teams to play. They always are good competition and really get us ready for tournaments.”
Poland is the second seed at the Division II Alliance tournament while Champion is the top seed at the Division III Jefferson tournament.
The Flashes scored an unearned run in the second inning and four in the third. Alayna Fell’s two-out, two run single after fouling off five Svetlak strike-two pitches was the key hit.
“She had decent speed to [try to] hit,” Fell said. “This is great for us because we kind of jump to their level. We have high expectations and we push ourselves a little more.”