The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Lake earns regional bid
After an inning and a half in the Division II district championship game in Jefferson on May 18, Lake Catholic softball coach Jim Galloway gathered his team in a huddle before the Cougars took their second at-bats of the game. His message was simple. “Hey,” he said, getting their attention. “We belong here. We belong.”
About an hour later, the Cougars proved their coach was right.
Lake Catholic scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to take an 8-5 win over Jefferson, giving the Cougars their first district championship since 2012, while ending Jefferson’s two-year reign as district champ.
Lake Catholic (12-10) will play the winner of the Akron District in a regional semifinal at 5 p.m. on May 24 at Firestone Stadium.
“There are some premier teams like Jefferson and NDCL,” Galloway said. “I wanted to make sure they knew we belonged, that they belonged on the same field as these guys.”
When Lake Catholic second baseman Lauren Bush hauled in a soft liner off the bat of Jefferson freshman Sheridon Wilber, the celebration was on.
“I love this team, but I didn’t think we’d do it,” senior Nicole Bush said. “But we did.”
It took an amazing — not to mention unfathomable — turn of events for Lake Catholic to get past the Falcons. The Cougars scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth by only making contact with the ball once — and that was a popup 10 feet in front of home plate.
Wilber retired the first two batters of the inning in the bottom of the sixth, but then walked Lauren Bush, Ava Peterlin and Nicole Bush to load the bases.
Two innings earlier, Peterlin and Nicole Bush had RBI hits to erase a 5-2 deficit and tie the game at 5.
With the bases loaded and the game on the line, Amanda Maurer was hit by a pitch to give Lake a 6-5 lead.
Jess Chebra then popped up in front of home plate, but the ball was dropped, allowing Peterlin and Nicole Bush to score.
In the game-changing sixth, there were three walks, two hit batters, a throwing error, a fielding error and a wild pitch.
Jefferson never recovered.
“We kept going,” Galloway said. “We had a nice eye at the plate. They were struggling throwing strikes and we took advantage of it.”
Frustrated Jefferson coach Seth Gilman, talked with his youthful team — the Falcons have only one senior — after the game.
“Worst game we’ve played,” Gilman said. “An absolute gift. It’s ridiculous.
“Man, we really dropped one right there and they know it. We don’t even want to go into earned runs. Offensively, we did well enough. We just absolutely dropped one right there.”
Jefferson appeared to break the game open in the second inning on an RBI double by Maggie Moore and an RBI triple by Wilber, part of a three-run inning that gave the Falcons a 4-1 lead.
Lake Catholic scored on an error in the third to make it 4-2, but then Destiny Mayes doubled and scored on a wild pitch to give Jefferson a seemingly comfortable 5-2 lead.
But after tying the game in the bottom of the fourth, the Cougars sealed the deal in the sixth.
Moore had three doubles for Jefferson, while Wilber tripled and doubled. Eight of the Falcons’ 11 hits were of the extra-base variety.
“We hit the ball well today,” Gilman said. “That wasn’t the side of the ball that was concerning.”
Nicole Bush and Jenna Brenneman each singled twice for Lake Catholic, with Peterlin driving in a pair.
Jefferson committed five errors, while Lake Catholic was errorless in the field.
“We’ve had a never-saydie attitude all year,” Galloway said. “We’ve been up and we’ve been down. We just got hot at the right time. I’m so proud of them.”