Poland’s Junior League state champs include Canfield ace

July 20, 2017 at 12:10a.m.

POLAND

One year removed from a Junior League World Series appearance, Poland is ramping up for another run to youth softball’s promised land.

Poland’s 13-14 year-old squad begins regional play on Saturday in South Holland, Ill., roughly a half-hour south of Chicago. Should the team emerge victorious, a trip to Portland, Ore., is in order.

Four players are back from last year’s run: Brooke Bobbey, Jackie Grisdale, Camryn Lattanzio and Lexi Diaz.

“They know how some of the teams are and how it plays out. They give us advice on what to do.” Poland second baseman Jordyn Olson said. “We all are good softball players and we know how to work together.

“When a team scores, we let it go and just keep going.”

While the team knows what to do if an opponent scores, it may not even allow that many runs given what it has on the hill.

Because the lack of participation in softball at this level, Poland coach Matt Bobbey looked for outside help to fill out his roster.

“We looked into the rules and found out that you can legitimately combine two teams if you have low participation,” Bobbey said. “Canfield had three or four girls that wanted to try out and from that we picked this team.”

While the team still heavily skews to the Poland side — nine players to Canfield’s one — the lone out-of-district addition is no small matter. Canfield High School sophomore KaiLi Gross is an experienced pitcher at the varsity level. She was the starting pitcher for the Cardinals’ 4-3 win against Boardman to win a district title.

She has previously played travel ball with some of Poland’s players, so joining them wasn’t a new experience.

“We’re just having fun. We like playing with each other,” Gross said. “You kind of forget that you’re supposed to be rivals.”

Brooke Bobbey also has varsity pitching experience with Poland High School, but she and Gross form a one-two punch.

In last year’s World Series, Poland failed to advance from the round-robin stage, going 3-4. Bobbey pitched all of those games and the regional games leading up to them.

“It takes a lot of pressure off me because I don’t have to pitch every game, plus [Gross] is a great player in the field and on the mound,” Bobbey said. “She’s also very strong at the plate, she’s our leadoff hitter.”

The two pitchers had different takes on applying their high school experience to the Junior League. Gross doesn’t view Junior Leaguers any differently than high school competition.

“Age doesn’t really matter. If you’re good, you’re good,” Gross said. “You don’t have to be older or younger, that doesn’t decide it.”

Bobbey sees an advantage against the younger hitters.

“You don’t have to worry about home runs as much. Pitching against [high schoolers] has helped me learn to put some spin on the ball — you need that when you’re facing players that see faster pitchers than you,” Bobbey said. “You bring it back to the 14-year-olds and they can’t handle the spin.”

Poland will face the Iowa state champs on Saturday.