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Poland wins Junior League softball district title
Rotating pitching, prolific hitting lead to 13-14 district crown
By BRIAN DZENIS
BOARDMAN
Poland’s 13-14 softball team prides itself on being completely focused at the task at hand, even it occasionally leads to some risky play.
In the third inning of Poland’s Junior League District championship game on Thursday against Canfield, outfielder Brooke Bobbey was chasing a fly ball in left field. She caught the ball, but went face-first into the chain-link fence along the first-base line. She hit the fence was such force that she was briefly stuck.
After Boardman’s Field of Dreams went silent, Bobbey broke the silence by sitting up, raising the ball up in the air and shouting, “I got it!”
“I was focused on the ball, but once I felt the ball in my glove, I didn’t see anything but fence,” Bobbey said. “I had to make sure they knew I caught the ball.”
She got the out and on the mound, she got the win in Poland’s 9-4 victory. Just as she popped up after hitting that fence, she was fine with how she was deployed on the mound.
Her father and coach, Matt Bobbey, rotated between Brooke and pitcher Camryn Lattanzio, who were left and right-handed, respectively. Pitching the second, fourth, part of the fifth and sixth innings, Brooke gave up just one hit while striking out three.
“They’re a great hitting team and Brooke pitched the first two games and we were 1-1, so I thought we needed a change of pace,” Matt said. “Cammy has been a good pitcher for a long time and I thought it was her time to get out there and mix it up. Brooke was doing well too, so I wanted to keep them off balance.”
Brooke said she and Lattanzio previously spoke about forming a pitching committee before her dad approached her with the idea. The plan was to have Lattanzio handle the top half of the Canfield order and Brooke take the bottom.
“It’s funny how we both thought of the same thing,” Brooke said. “I knew if I came out, she would do great with me in the outfield and when I was in, I had her behind the plate.”
Lattanzio gave up four runs on eight hits while walking one. Canfield initially took the lead in the top of the first on an RBI double from Mary Gomez and an RBI single from Emily Smith. Three of Canfield’s four runs came off Smith’s bat as she was 2 for 4. Poland responded in the bottom of the inning with Lattanzio coming home on a wild pitch and Jackie Grisdale and Hannah Dinard each hitting RBI singles.
“It was just different from the other days. Other times, we haven’t done that,” Grisdale said of her team’s day at the plate. “Since we started out strong, we knew it was going to go well.”
Grisdale was 3 for 4, including a triple, and two RBIs She got her second RBI in the second inning. An error and Lauren Sienkiewicz coming home on a groundout doubled Poland’s lead. Smith’s two-run single in the fifth cut Canfield’s deficit to two runs, but it didn’t get closer. Poland’s Lexi Diaz hit an inside-the-park home run in the fifth and an RBI single in the sixth. Caroline Aey knocked in Poland’s ninth run. Poland combined for 12 hits in the win.
Poland is heading down the same path it went a year ago.
As an 11-12 team last summer, the Poland all-stars were state champions. Poland will begin state play in Boardman on July 23.
“I know the competition is going to be tough, but I coached these girls last year as U12 in state and they won,” Matt Bobbey said “We’ll have a tougher battle with this group of teams.”