Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Clay baseball team is one step away from the state final four.
Clay, which won the Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division, defeated St. John's, 3-1, to claim a Division II district title. The Eagles, who rallied to defeat Hudson, 2-1, in a regional semifinal, lost a bevy of key players like C.J. Boudreaux and Vinny Gallaher from last year's squad, but behind the likes of Landon Eversman and Brandon Vargas have reached the regional finals for the first time since 1979.
The win over the Explorers saw Eversman pitch a complete game and give up just one run in the third inning before Clay, which is now 19-9, rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh.
With one out, Darin Fussel hit a double, which was followed up by a triple from Brayden Toneff to tie the score, 1-1, and Alex Goetz drilled a 2-1 pitch to center to score Toneff and win the game.
"Winning these games is the best feeling ever, this group of guys means so much to me and winning with them means the world," said Eversman, who has been arguably the Eagles' best hitter and pitcher this season.
The victory over Hudson followed up a 3-1 win over old Three Rivers Athletic Conference foe St. John's in a district final.
Clay coach Jim Phillips talked about his club getting to this point.
"A lot of people asked how we would be (considering) how much we lost,” he said. “I viewed this year as a re-tool, not a rebuild," he said. "There were a lot of new faces, and we understood it would be a process to get that many guys acclimated to varsity baseball at once.
"To their credit, this group bought in and continued to improve each day. I'm so proud of the growth I've seen in this group since February."
Eastwood softball shuns naysayers
A team that surprised people in the softball world this season was the Eastwood Eagles.
With just one senior in Ady Bowe and a roster filled with new faces, Eastwood was picked to finish fifth in the Northern Buckeye Conference, but instead shared the league title at 12-2 with Lake and made it to a Division V regional semifinal before losing a heartbreaker to Milford Center Fairbanks, 2-1. That followed up a 4-2 over Archbold in the district final.
The Eagles finished the season 22-3 and sixth in the final state coaches poll.
"We were young and got better each game,” Eastwood coach Joe Wyant said. “We played well, and we became a very competitive team. Against Archbold, we had some big hits in that game. Bowe had a two-run home run. She's our best player, and I think she is the best player in the league. We were fortunate to have her, she had another good year.
“We bunted the ball and played some small ball, and they had an error that helped us take the lead. It was a good win as they're a very good team. We probably over-performed from what most people thought we would do."
Lake softball caps historic season
As for the Lake softball team, they finished the season with 25 wins and won a district title for the first time in 34 years, the highlights of the season being a league title and a 10-9 win in eight innings over Clyde in a Division IV district final.
Lake, which finished the regular season ranked sixth in Division IV rallied to defeat the Fliers in the district final before falling to Lexington in the regional semifinal round.
The Flyers — Lake spells it with a 'y' and Clyde spells it with an 'i' — trailed by five runs heading into the sixth, but scored once in the sixth and put up four runs in the seventh, the key hit being a two-out, two-run double by Ellie Rymers that tied the score and sent the game into extra innings.
It was also revenge for Lake, which lost its only non-conference game to the Fliers on April 2.
In the bottom of the sixth, Flyer pitcher Kali Bedford worked a 1-2-3 inning and in the seventh, she stranded two runners with a strikeout to send the game into extras.
In the eighth, Norah Demory hit a single to center, which was followed by a pop out and Parker Dart reaching on a walk. There was another pop out, and Kylee Pietrzak lined a base hit to center to score the go-ahead run, and Bedford retired Clyde in the bottom half to end the game.
Clay softball makes regional run
Clay, under the direction of legendary coach Brenda Radabaugh, had a fine season, winning 19 games and claiming their first district title in six years.
Led by the likes of Ellie Haynes (.538, 5 HR, 44 RBI), Madison Franke (.482, 5 HR, 58 RBI) and Olivia Haas (.426, 6 HR, 28 RBI), among others, Clay's highlight of the season was a 7-1 win over Northview in a Div. II district final, a result that avenged a lost to the Wildcats in April.
The Eagles' season ended with a 3-2 loss to Green in the regional semifinals.
In the victory over Northview, Clay scored immediately and rode Haas's fantastic performance in the circle to get the win.
At the plate, Haas had two hits, two RBIs and scored twice. Ellie Haynes finished with three hits, including a double and a triple, while driving in two runs and scoring twice. Franke had two hits and two RBIs.
Oak Harbor, Gibsonburg softball in state semifinals
Two other area teams – Oak Harbor and Gibsonburg – are competing in the state semifinals in Akron just after the print deadline for The Press. Stay tuned to next week’s edition for coverage on those results.
