South Range comeback falls just short

May 29, 2015 at 12:09a.m.

Elyria Catholic will

face Champion in final

By DAN HINER

MASSILLON

The South Range softball team needed a break to go its way a in 5-4 loss to Elyria Catholic in a Division III regional semifinal on Thursday.

But every time the Raiders looked as if they were about to seize control, they’d commit an error or a Panthers player would make a difficult catch.

The Panthers took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first after South Range pitcher Caragyn Yanek (14-4) walked Elyria Catholic leadoff hitter Sam Filiaggi and then gave up a two-run home run to Riley Schill.

“I throw a good pitch to her. I just left it a little too much on the plate and she got ahold of it,” Yanek said.

South Range (21-8) cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the first when Taylor Helon hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to drive home Felicia Gaeta.

Elyria Catholic (16-14) responded in the top of the second inning with three more runs. Leigha Donaghue started the second inning with a lead-off walk. Donaghue scored on a two-out double by pitcher Ashley Cascio. Filiaggi hit an infield single in the next at-bat to put runners on first and second. The Panthers added the final two runs in the inning after a throwing error by South Range allowed Cascio and Filiaggi to score.

“She settled down and pitched well after that second inning,” South Range head coach Donnee Feren said. “With the first inning, a lead-off walk and a lead-off home run, but she settled down after that. She pitched a game good enough to win. We have to make plays in the field for her, and we didn’t do that today.

“If you get to this level, you just can’t give people runs. They made plays — they made difficult plays, they made routine plays. We didn’t make the ones we needed to do.”

South Range scored two runs in the bottom of the third inning to cut the deficit to 5-3. The Raiders’ Jordan Youngs drove in the first run of the inning after hitting a one-out single to the rightfield to score Gaeta. Third baseman Codi Taylor hit a groundout to second base to drive in shortstop Sarah Moretti from third base.

The Raiders had their best chance to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. Smith hit a one-out single to center field and Madison Weaver came in to pinch run. Jessica Skripac cut the Panther lead to 5-4 by hitting a double off the wall in right field to drive in Weaver. But Skripac was stranded after Baird hit a groundout to the shortstop and Morgan Czopur lined out to center field.

South Range had another opportunity to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh when Gaeta walked to lead off the inning. Moretti dropped a sacrifice bunt to first base to advance Gaeta into scoring position, but Youngs flied out to center field and Douglas ran down a hard-hit line drive by Helon in center field to end the game.

Yanek pitched a complete game — allowing five earned runs on seven hits, three walks and striking out nine.

“It was an extremely tough loss,” Yanek said. “I’m proud of my team for coming back and picking me up after that first inning. I honestly couldn’t have gotten this far without my team. They’ve been there for me for everything. We just didn’t play our best today. We could’ve played better.”

Elyria Catholic will face Champion in a regional final Saturday at noom.