Aurora earns Jefferson District title
JEFFERSON — How do you solve a problem like McKennah Metzger, to steal from “The Sound of Music”?
In the first inning, the Aurora senior slugger erased an early one-run deficit with a line drive over the left-field fence.
In the third, Field understandably decided to walk Metzger.
The next batter, junior Sophie Retton, blasted an inside pitch over the left-field fence to put the top-seeded Greenmen ahead — for good — en route to an 11-1 win over the fourth-seeded Falcons for their first district championship since 2012.
“Honestly, my dad this morning prepared me and was, like, ‘If they intentionally walk McKennah, just be ready,’” Retton said. “McKennah came to me and said, ‘Smack it over the fence,’ so I just put my best swing on my pitch.”
“She’s a beast,” Metzger added. “Like, I trust her to get a hit every at-bat because that’s just what she does. And if she doesn’t, she comes back the next one and hits it even harder.”
Metzger has 14 home runs this season, and Retton finished the game 3-for-3 with four RBIs.
An unstoppable duo.
“That’s by design,” Aurora coach Sam Petrash said. “Metzger came in and we all know what Metzger can do, and she can’t reach full potential without other players in the lineup to help her out, meaning protection. And when Sophie Retton came in her freshman year, we said, ‘She’s the girl. She’s the one that’s going to protect McKennah Metzger in the four-hole,’ and since her freshman year, she’s been doing it. And when they walked McKennah, I’m thinking, ‘This is what you’re here for, Sophie.’”
Retton proved a conundrum.
In the fourth, the Falcons tried to get a change-up past Retton. But she wasn’t fooled, bashing the ball up the middle for a critical two-out, two-run hit to push the Greenmen lead to 7-1.
“I was prepared that that pitcher only threw outside,” Retton said. “So anything that was out there, I was keeping my hands back and just trying to drive it to right field as hard as I could.”
Depth delivered repeatedly for Aurora (23-1), with all nine players getting a hit. Indeed, the Greenmen’s runaway sevenrun fourth started with the bottom of the lineup.
Eight-hitter Avery Qualters started the rally with a one-out double to left. The nine hitter, Julia Miller, followed with a single and Aurora was off and running.
“On our offseason, our end of the order put in so much work and it’s honestly awesome to see it all pay off,” Retton said. “We all have so much confidence in each other. If you get out, you know you’re coming into the dugout and everyone’s picking you up.”
Oh, and Miller wasn’t done.
The junior’s next at-bat was even more spectacular as she sent a solo shot off and over the top of the right-field fence to walk it off for the Greenmen in the fifth.
Not that Aurora was the only team with a loaded lineup. Field (23-4) is plenty potent as well, as demonstrated in the top of the first when it forced Metzger to throw 37 pitches, starting with sophomore Lilli Sutkowy’s 13-pitch leadoff atbat.
Kailyn Gressman followed with a crisp sacrifice bunt and Mckayla Miller and
Maddie Burge added infield hits to load the bases. Tia Ulrich drove Sutkowy home with a groundout.
After five batters, Metzger had already thrown 30 pitches.
The Greenmen senior’s reaction was simple. Trust her defense.
“They were really good at getting on me right off the bat and I see that, and that first batter, I threw a lot of different pitches,” Metzger said. “So I was, like, I kind of just have to trust myself and my defense will be there.”
Sure, Field made some hard contact the rest of the way, including two linedrive hits by right fielder Delilah Rahe, but Aurora’s defense was more than up to the task. The Greenmen’s gold-glove plays included throwing out two Falcons runners trying to get an extra base and a remarkable diving snag by Qualters as she raced into the right-field gap.
Three excellent defensive plays and three homers later and Aurora found itself jumping up and down near home plate in a delirious huddle. After a number of heartbreaking Jefferson District losses in prior years, their jubilation was understandable.
“Being a senior, we’ve been here all three years and we’ve never gotten past it,” Metzger said. “So being here, it feels so surreal. It’s kind of a goal that I know [fellow senior Madeline Dalessandro] and I have had, but the whole team has had this year, and it just feels amazing because our hard work is really showing. We’re really coming together as a team and it’s a good confidence booster as we head into regionals.”
The chant in that happy huddle was simple:
“We made it out of Jefferson.”