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Neighbors | Submitted.The Poland 13-14 girls softball team won the Junio League World Series title on Aug. 5. The team is pictured celebrating their victory.
By Codie Talley
For the Poland 13-14 softball team, jumping on teams early and forcing them to play from behind has been the key to success at the Junior League World Series.
On Aug. 5, Poland did it again, jumping out to a 2-0 first inning lead and never looking back on the way to a 7-1 victory over Washington in the championship game.
“The last three games we’ve jumped on teams and we did it again today,” Poland manager Matt Bobbey said. “The middle of our lineup was huge for us.
“Jackie Grisdale, Camryn Latanzio, Brooke Bobbey — they all hit the ball well.”
Poland was appearing in its second Junior League World Series. In 2016, Poland finished fifth in the 10-team field.
Grisdale, who drove in three runs, credited preparation and coaching to their hitting success.
“Our coaches do a great job of preparing us for every game and every situation,” Grisdale said.” We’re always in the cages every day and before every game and Coach [Kevin] Diaz does a good job modeling the opposing pitcher and getting us ready for what we’re going to be facing,” Grisdale said.
Poland defeated the host team from Kirkland, Wash., but was was prepared to play the Virginia state champions from Atlee, the team that defeated Washington 1-0 in Friday’s semifinal.
Saturday, Little League officials disqualified Virginia because one of its players made a post on social media that was deemed unsportsmanlike.
Bobbey said he was shocked with the ruling.
“We were in disbelief, but we always tell our girls you have to be ready to play no matter what,” Bobbey said. “We respected the team from Washington and knew we still had to take care of business.”
On the mound, Canfield’s KaiLi Gross, the only member of the team not from Poland, was dominant. Gross pitched a complete game and struck out 10 batters. Gross allowed just one run, wrapping up a dominant run in the tournament.
“KaiLi pitched well all tournament and she did again today,” Bobbey said.
As for what this means for the Poland community, Bobbey said he believes that it will strengthen the strong tradition of Poland softball.
“We’ve won state titles at the high school level and we had Erin Gabriel pitch at Tennessee,” Bobbey said. “I think this just adds to it and hopefully it will encourage the young girls in Poland to come out and play softball and keep the tradition going.”
Grisdale was much happier with this year’s finish.
“It’s so exciting,” Grisdale said. “We were here last year and we didn’t win. We’ve been waiting for this moment ever since then.
“Everyone back home supports us and cheers us on and we can’t wait to get back home and show them what we did.”
Next for the Poland girls is bringing the championship home and some time off.
“The long season is finally over,” Bobbey said. “We have many multi-sport athletes on our team so they’ll take [a break] and move on to volleyball and other things,” Bobbey said.