The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Vermilion’s comeback falls short
Vermilion nearly mounted an incredible comeback before ultimately falling short against visiting Sandusky Bay Conference foe Margaretta, 9-7, on May 4.
Before the first pitch, the Sailors held a brief ceremony to honor Matt Kobal, the late Vermilion teacher and coach who died suddenly on Nov. 17, 2017, and the team played an emotional game in which they tried to emulate Kobal’s motto, “Believe it, do it.”
“That (saying) was up on our fence (by the football stadium) for a really long time and I think that has just impacted so many athletes that if we believe it, we can do it,” senior Maria Keller said. “I truly do believe that. I think that has left a really big impact on every single athlete.”
Vermilion trailed, 9-3, heading into the seventh
inning with the top of the order up to bat, and after handing Margaretta a few easy runs, thanks to fielding errors over the course of the game, the team was ready to put Kobal’s motto into action.
Keller led off the inning with a single and the Sailors strung together four straight hits, including an RBI double from Corah Peterson, her second double of the game.
“I’ve been in a little bit of a slump and the coaches have been pushing me really hard to get out of it, and so I give a lot of the credit to them,” Peterson said. “Tonight, just playing this game, it just brought out a lot . ... There was a lot of emotion there.”
Peterson was caught in a rundown at third base for the first out but the Sailors put two more runners on base for Abby Spencer, and with two outs, the junior laced an RBI single to get within two runs, but despite batting around in the seventh inning, Margaretta reliever Jayden Moore struck out the final hitter to preserve the win for the Polar Bears.
Vermilion matched Margaretta’s 11 hits, including five in the seventh inning, but ultimately errors kept the game out of reach for the Sailors, who showed flashes of brilliance in the field but missed on some fundamental plays.
“They’re capable of doing it. It’s just we have not put any full games together where it all comes together,” Vermilion coach Bill Matthews said. “Today ... the ball was bouncing off gloves and we weren’t able to throw it to first.
“We’ve done well hitting the ball all year. We just haven’t played very good defense and we don’t have a dominating pitcher that’s going to strike a bunch of people out so you have to play really good defense. If you don’t play really good defense, you’re going to give up runs and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
The players, though, had mostly positive attitudes postgame.
With two home games on deck next week, including an SBC rematch against Port Clinton which was a 17-2 victim of Vermilion earlier, the Sailors are inspired to take “Believe it, do it” with them the rest of the way and finish the regular season strong before sectional play begins.
“We’re finally coming together as a team right now so I’m really proud of everybody,” Keller said. “We have a young team this year so I’m proud of the freshmen and sophomores and juniors stepping up and hitting the ball. It was really huge for us to see we can come back from such a defeat so I think that gives a big positive into our next game.”