Mulder’s clutch hit lifts Demons over Eagles

The Westlake Demons used strong pitching, solid defense and timely hitting to defeat Southwestern Conference rival host Avon, 3-1, on April 5.

Both starting pitchers went

the distance, throwing seven innings apiece, but Westlake sophomore Madison Stanca earned the victory, thanks to a clutch two-run single from senior leader Madi Mulder in the top of the sixth, which proved to be the game-winning hit.

Stanca allowed one run, which came by an RBI single by freshman Taryn Bolen in the bottom of the second, but aside from that, Avon couldn’t get anything across.

The Eagles pieced together rallies in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, getting two runners on base each time, but Stanca maintained her poise and found a way out of jams in three straight innings, thanks in large part to Westlake’s stellar defense.

“It’s so hard to be in those situations,” Stanca said. “You just

want to get it over the plate and almost want to just let the defense have it sometimes. I just pictured the release point in my head and tried to get it there. We wouldn’t be able to win the game without the defense. Everyone out there is amazing and everyone is part of it.”

As for Westlake’s offense, the Demons found life difficult against Avon junior Tina Clark, who rang up 13 strikeouts, walking one and allowing only five hits. The outing marked her third complete game of the season, and Avon coach Ken Matuszak was more than happy with the way she delivered.

“She pitched well. She’s always going to give us a great effort out there. Same thing with defense, I thought our defense played really well,” Matuszak said.

“I thought Westlake had some timely hits and we didn’t. We put people on and didn’t score. Our offense was hitting it hard. But if we hit it hard and it’s right at someone, then kudos to the opposing team.”

The Demons scratched a run across in the bottom of the third, thanks to some aggressive baserunning.

Stanca led the inning off with a hit, and freshman Paige Bowman came in to pinch run with her team down by one.

Peyton Hahn moved the runner to second with a sacrifice bunt and turned the lineup over for the top of the order to get a chance.

Selene Cerankosky drew a walk, but Clark struck out the next batter, bringing Audrey Lyle to the plate.

The junior hit a slow roller toward second base, and a fielding error resulted

in Cerankosky being safe at first. Meanwhile, Bowman rounded third as the play was being made at first base, and the sophomore came around to score, catching Avon’s defense somewhat by surprise.

“We definitely had to keep girls running because against Clark, you’re not going to get many chances,” Westlake coach Tom Shiban said.

“We know that. We’ve faced her before. She’s so tough to hit. When you have scoring opportunities against a great pitcher like that, you have to try to manufacture some runs and make things happen. That’s something that we’ve talked about as a team. The girls are really starting to take that to heart and have been working on their baserunning and working on anticipating better. You have to take some chances in a game like that.”

That risk paid off and tied the game, 1-1. After that, the two sides were deadlocked until that sixth inning, when Westlake’s bats came to life in a clutch situation.

Westlake’s 2-3-4 hitters got things started in the sixth, as Kylie Brown led the inning off with a single and Lyle followed with a double.

Mulder, the cleanup hitter, broke the tie with the biggest hit of the game.

“I was really happy with that inning,” Shiban said.

“We strung a couple hits together and Madi had that big hit up the middle that brought two runs home. We’re really excited for our girls. We had a rough loss yesterday and for them to come back today and have the effort that we did against a really good team like that, I’m really proud of them.”

Westlake faces Midview at home on April 6, while Avon hosts Lakewood.