Three Champion-ships in a row

AKRON — By MIKE MCLAIN

sports@vindy.com

AKRON

Cassidy Shaffer wouldn’t have been so bold as to call her shots, but that didn’t stop her teammates from tapping into their intuitive thoughts.

They called Shaffer’s three-run home run in the sixth inning and her two-run homer in the seventh that supplied all the runs for the Champion Golden Flashes in a 5-0 win over the Cardington-Lincoln Pirates in the Division III state softball championship game Saturday at Firestone Stadium.

“I’d just like to say a couple of us called it,” Flashes pitcher Allison Smith said of Shaffer’s home runs. “Brooklynn [Whitt] called the first one and I called the second one.

“After I saw her foul tip [a 3-2 pitch] backwards, I said, ‘left-center.’ I said, ‘here it goes.’ I was like, ‘that a girl.’ ”

The homers were record-setting on a record-setting day for the Flashes, who have won three straight state titles, four of the last five and six of the last nine.

Shaffer became the first player in Division III history to homer twice in a state title game.

More impressive is that the win ties Champion with Akron Springfield for the most softball championships in state history with nine.

The Flashes prevailed in the inaugural state tournament of 1978 and have since added crowns in 1980, 1994, 2011 and ’12, 2015 and the last three seasons.

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