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Poland plays for world championship today on ESPN2
By CODIE TALLEY
Local softball will be featured on the national stage this afternoon. Poland — representing the Central region — will play for the Junior League Softball world championship at 3 p.m. in a game that will be televised on ESPN2.
Poland coach Matt Bobbey is excited for the opportunity.
“We’re taking it in stride, trying not to think about it because we know we still have one more game to win,” Bobbey said.
“But we’re excited to represent the area and the Poland community on a national level, and win or lose - we’re gonna battle.”
Poland will face off against a familiar foe in the championship game. They will play the Southeast regional winner from Mechanicsville, Va.
The squad from Virginia enters today’s game with a 6-0 record, including a 3-0 victory over Poland on Monday, Poland’s only loss in the tournament.
Bobbey said having already faced them will be an advantage.
“ The game was 0-0 going into the sixth inning. We hung with them hitting-wise. We’ve seen their pitching, so we know what we have,” Bobbey said. “We have to jump on them early. We’ve got some hot bats right now and we’re playing well.”
To get to today’s championship game, Poland had to go through a tough team from Warwick, Rhode Island, that was 5-0 entering the game. Poland prevailed 6-4 thanks in large part to a hot start offensively. The offensive attack was led by Lexi Diaz, who finished with three hits and two RBIs. Brooke Bobbey added two hits as Poland totaled 10 hits.
“We jumped on them early, scored three runs in the first inning and had them on the defensive,” Matt Bobbey said.
Camryn Lattanzio’s two-run homer put Poland up 5-0 and a dominant outing for pitcher KaiLi Gross sealed the win. Gross pitched the whole game and struck out nine.
“Our pitching and defense came through. They were a very good hitting team, and their bats didn’t wake up until late in the game,” Matt Bobbey said.
After finishing fifth in last year’s World Series, Bobbey credits experience and pitching to the success of this year’s run.
“Bringing back the experience of our core group of players, and adding KaiLi to our team has made things easier on us,” he said.
Gross, along with Brooke Bobbey, create a dynamic pitching duo that gives Poland an edge.
“Having two good pitchers allows for them to get extra rest in between games and gives them more time to recover,” Bobbey. “KaiLi’s been pitching great and we’re gonna try and ride her arm to a championship.”