Raiders will play for crown

June 3, 2016 at 12:10a.m.

South Range shuts down Edison’s power

By BRIAN DZENIS

AKRON

The South Range High School softball team looked pretty relaxed for a first-time experience at state.

The Raiders weren’t fazed by Firestone Stadium’s excitement, downing Milan Edison, 7-1. The win brought some closure to the team.

“It’s good to know Friday is our last practice and Saturday is our last game,” Coach Jeff DeRose said. “It means we’ve made it to the end.”

Coming off a 12-inning, 1-0 slog against West Salem Northwestern in the regional final, DeRose wasn’t concerned about his team’s hitting.

“We didn’t do anything different,” DeRose said. “We’re just going through the motions now to be honest with you. We’ve basically been doing the same thing since the season started.”

His Raiders weren’t intimidated by Edison ace Erica Reber, who entered the game with one loss. They piled up 10 hits on her.

“We like to get started [scoring later in games], but this game, we were going to get started first,” first baseman Madison Weaver said. “We saw the pitcher and we were like ‘we’re going to hit this girl.’”

Weaver hit an RBI double in her first at-bat in the first inning and the Raiders never trailed. Felicia Gaeta followed up with a triple in the next inning and was brought home on Lydia Baird’s bunt.

That lead stuck thanks to Caragyn Yanek and a strong defense.

“I knew my team would back me up no matter what happened,” Yanek said. “I had so much confidence in them and it took so much stress off of me.”

Yanek gave three hits, a walk and a run while striking out six. That walk and run came in the seventh inning after she retired 13 consecutive batters.

“We’ve seen some good ones in the last few weeks. I don’t think she threw harder. Her off-speed wasn’t as good, but she didn’t need it,” Edison coach Troy Keegan said of Yanek. “She just hit her spots or we just hit it at people.”

Edison imploded in a five-run fifth inning. An error, three consecutive sacrifice bunts where the bunter wasn’t sacrificed, a fielder’s choice and an RBI single from Baird put the game away.

“We don’t necessarily practice it, but we do practice bunting and the girls did a fantastic job executing it,” DeRose said. “Once you start putting the ball in play and force them to make plays, they made a couple of mistakes.

“I don’t know if their heads were hanging, but they were down and we had a competitive advantage from that point forward.”

Edison got it’s run in the top of the seventh when Hailey Stoll singled. She stole second and when the throw went to the outfield, she went to third. Another errant throw brought her home.

“The last inning, I was throwing my hardest,” Yanek said. “I could feel [the game] coming to an end and I wanted it to be done and just celebrate with my team.”

Weaver finished with two hits, two RBIs and a run scored. Gaeta also had two RBIs and Codi Taylor scored two runs and collected two hits and an RBI.

South Range will face Wheelersburg in the state final on Saturday. Should they win, it’ll be the first state title for the school.

“We’ve been thinking about it this whole time,” Weaver said. “That’s just amazing to us because we’ve all worked so hard to get here.”