43
Motivated Mathews makes Windham pay
By Brian Dzenis
VIENNA
Windham proved that it’s not a good idea to insult a tournament’s No. 1 seed.
At the draw for the Division IV Warren District tournament, the third-seeded Bombers elected to put themselves on a path that had them facing top-seeded Mathews in the second round.
Mustangs coach Jim Nicula and his players took it as a slight.
“It stung. I’ve known (Windham coach Elliott Thompson) for a long time and I went through all 64 brackets in Ohio and they were the only (No. 3 seed) to take a one or two,” Nicula said. “That was motivation for us. When I came back from the draw, I put ‘respect’ on our board and it was about getting respect because they didn’t respect us.”
That extra bulletin-board material fueled the Mustangs’ seventh-inning rally that ended in a 4-3 victory in nine innings.
The Bombers’ motivation for taking the Mustangs up front was protecting ace Brittany Knight.
“Our biggest asset is the kid in the circle and I didn’t want her to have to go back to back in districts against two tough teams,” Thompson said. “Play them here, play them there, what difference does it make? Do you really think I give a [expletive] for a runner-up trophy? You’re going to have to play them sooner or later.”
It was a bold move, but for six innings, it looked like the right play for Windham. Knight entered the bottom of the sixth inning with a 3-0 lead and had only given up one hit, one struck batter and no walks. But Windham had an obvious weakness at catcher.
What few baserunners Mathews had, they ran. The home side stole nine bases on five base runners for the whole game. On the Mustangs’ second “hit” of the game, Mariah Hoff reached first on bunt. She was pulled for Emily Dick, who stole second on the very next pitch, advanced to third on Bailey Hall’s bunt and scored on a passed ball to break the shutout.
Knight, who finished the game with 17 strikeouts and no walks, started to show signs of slowing down in the bottom of the seventh.
Lenna Hoff hit a triple down the left-field line and then scored as Nicole Watts reached base on an error. Watts was pulled for freshman baserunner Grace Simon. Earlier in the season, Simon made the difference a 1-0 win against Windham by escaping a rundown in the bottom of the second to score the winning run.
Shamelessly exploiting the Bombers’ inability to throw out baserunners, Simon stole second and third on consecutive pitches. As she got to third, Windham catcher Mia Berardenelli sailed the ball over third base, allowing Simon to tie the game.
Windham loaded the bases in the eighth with two outs to spare. The Mustangs caught a break when the Bombers’ Sam Dean rolled the ball right back to Watts, the pitcher, who seemed surprised to get the ball before turning the 1-2-3 double play.
“I didn’t even realize I had the ball. It came back to me so fast,” Watts said.
Watts allowed three runs on seven hits and eight walks while striking out eight. She soldiered through the game despite missing three days of school while out sick.
“I was tired because I had the stomach flu for half the week. I pitched for the first time this week yesterday,” Watts said. “I’m really tired now.”
Watts tripled in the bottom of the ninth before getting pulled for Simon. With two outs and two stikes, Mustangs’ sophomore Alivia Oulten bunted home Simon for the walkoff win.
“I was really nervous. I always bunt with two strikes, but I never really succeeded in doing that,” Oulten said. “I just held it out there and didn’t expect to get it down, but I did. I pushed it past her and it was awesome.”
Mathews moves on to face sixth-seeded Maplewood on Wednesday at Candlelight Knolls.