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All the right moves help Heights hold off Mathews
By ED PUSKAS
KENT
The game inside the game — making adjustments — was bound to figure prominently in the Division IV softball regional final between Mathews and Cuyahoga Heights.
The Mustangs, coming off a regional semifinal win over hard-throwing Aleah Hughes and Western Reserve, had to change their approach against the slower offerings of Cuyahoga Heights pitcher Samantha Rodriguez.
The power-hitting Redskins, used to swinging from their heels, looked to focus on making contact and putting the ball in play against Mathews power pitcher Cheyenne Eggens.
Cuyahoga Heights — the defending state champion — was able to adapt a bit more successfully than Mathews and eliminated the Mustangs, 4-3, on Saturday at Kent State University’s Diamond at Dix Stadium.
The loss ends the high school careers of Eggens and seven other Mathews seniors.
“It’s bittersweet because I’m so proud of my team for coming this far and doing what we’ve done all season, but it also sucks that we didn’t win and we’re not advancing,” said Eggens, a South Florida recruit. “But I’m so proud of what we did.”
Mathews coach Jim Nicula said goodbye isn’t an absolute to the remaining Mustangs, who will always consider Eggens, Karli Romesberg, Maddie Williams, Maddy Nicula, Paula Sponsler, Jenna Siefert, Marisa O’Dell and Brittany Brown part of their softball family.
“It’s never goodbye,” Nicula said. “We’re going to see them forever and we’re going to follow Cheyenne’s career at South Florida. ... We’re a family.”
Cuyahoga Heights (28-3) will meet North Lewisburg (25-3) in a state semifinal Friday at Firestone Stadium in Akron.
It’s a place Redskins coach Christy Zawadzki knows well, especially after leading her team to a state championship there a year ago. Zawadzki planned to retire at the end of last season, but this year’s seniors talked into staying on to defend their title.
Was it worth it?
“That’s what my principal just asked me,” Zawadzki said with a smile. “Yes, it was. I’m very, very close with the whole team, but the seniors ... I also coach soccer and a lot of them also play soccer and they’re very special to me.”
Morgan Orlowski and Jenna Stegmaier each had two hits for the Redskins, who scored twice in the bottom of the first inning and twice in the third. Orlowski drove in a run with each of her two singles. Stegmaier singled and doubled.
Dana Denner drove in a run with a first-inning sacrifice fly and Alicia Falorio had an RBI single.
“We spent two days preparing for Cheyenne,” Zawadski said. “We faced her two years ago in a regional semifinal and she struck us out 18 times. We weren’t going to have that [again], so we spent a lot of time preparing for her fastball and her speed.”
Said Eggens: “They hit me. I know I’m not invincible. I’m going to get hit. That’s softball.”
Eggens adjusted, too, and shut out Cuyahoga Heights over the final three innings. She began to get them off-balance, Jim Nicula said, by changing speeds.
“You wouldn’t think you’d see a power pitcher throwing 40 percent changeups, but it worked,” he said.
But aside from Lenna Hoff (two doubles, a walk and a hard-hit, double-play grounder) and Meredith Grimes (single and home run), Rodriguez had most of the Mustangs off-balance.
“If we could have strung maybe three or four hits back-to-back-to-back, it definitely would have helped a little bit,” Nicula said.
Mathews (24-6) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Hoff led off with a line-drive double to the fence just left of center field and scored on Siefert’s sacrifice fly.
Williams tripled in the third and scored on Hoff’s second double. Hoff went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Sponsler, but was thrown out at the plate when Siefert hit a hard grounder to third baseman Lauren Goetz.
Grimes followed with a single through the left side and when Redskins left fielder Brittany Nero bobbled the ball, the Mustangs had runners at second and third. But Rodriguez retired Romesburg on a fly ball to center.
Grimes hit screaming liner over the center-field wall in the sixth, but Mathews didn’t threaten again, although Rodriguez pitched around Hoff with two outs in the seventh — walking her on five pitches — before ending the game with one of the two strikeouts she recorded.
Eggens also struck out just two batters, as both teams consistently put the ball in play.
“They’re the defending state champions and they did what they needed to do,” Nicula said. “They made adjustments just like we did. I thought our kids did a great job of putting the ball in play. We hit line drives that were caught and they made some great defensive plays.
“I’m sad for [our players] more than anything because they fell short of where they wanted to go, but they have absolutely have nothing to be ashamed of. ... They maybe just made one more adjustment than we did.”