The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Madison rebounds to take down North
It was too early in the season for the Madison softball team to consider an April 6 matchup against North a “must-win” scenario. But was it a big game? Absolutely.
A day after being upset by Lake Catholic, 2-1, in the seventh inning, Madison rebounded with a 4-3 win over North in a key Western Reserve Conference game.
Hallie Blackford hammered a three-run home run in the third inning, and Alyssa Lavdis struck out 14, leading the Blue Streaks (51) to an important bounceback victory.
“It was very exciting,” Blackford said. “I had a lot of faith in my team coming into this. We all know yesterday
THE SCORE MADISON 4, NORTH 3
didn’t go as we would have liked or hoped. We had to get back to it and do what we know we can do.”
Blackford’s third-inning bomb was pivotal. She fouled off the previous pitch, then blasted the next over the fence for a 4-0 lead.
Madison never scored again, but it didn’t need to.
“I was hoping for a strike, and I got it,” Blackford said. “It was pretty much right down the middle.”
North rallied for three runs in the sixth inning when Olivia Augusta blasted a three-run home run to cut the score to 4-3. But that’s as close as it got.
North, who outhit Madison 7-5, left two runners on base in the seventh when Lavdis wiggled out of the jam.
North coach Taylor Braddock lamented her team’s “looking strikeouts,” as well as the one fateful inning.
“That one inning definitely killed us,” she said. “Errors got us. It was just one (inning). Every other inning, I’ll take that defense any day. I thought Liv (Augusta) pitched one of the best games I’ve ever seen her throw.”
Augusta had 10 strikeouts for the Rangers.