Beavers hammer Rangers to clinch outright title

What do the Riverside softball team’s black-and-gold uniforms and the Western Reserve Conference race have in common? No gray area.

With a pair of walk-off wins on May 14 — one against Madison and another against North — Riverside clinched the outright WRC championship in the most convincing fashion imaginable.

The Beavers started their day with an 11-1 thumping of visiting Madison, then got a threerun walkoff home run from Emi Jeras to hand North a 14-2 loss.

The pair of wins ups Riverside’s record to 19-2 overall and 11-0 in the conference. Heading into the day, both Chardon and North had two WRC losses and thus held out hope for a co-title. With Riverside’s two hammer jobs on May 14, all those hopes are dashed.

This one belongs to the Beavers.

With an exclamation point. “The girls were ready today,” Coach Bill Ross said. “They’ve been hyped all week for this one.” But… 14-2?

Over one of the prime contenders in the conference?

“We thought we were…” Ross said, pausing. “We thought we could do this. We definitely thought comign in here today we coudl put a big number up. They came out swinging the bats hard and we did it.”

The Beavers hammered out 14 hits against North pitching, with “hammer” being the operative word. Six of the hits were doubles and Jeras’ bomb went well over the 230-foot sign in center field.

“They do hit,” North coach Matt McPeek said. “They hit and take advantage of mistakes. Every team we’ve seen this week, with Chardon and Massillon Jackson, does the same thing. That’s the sign of a veteran, wellcoached team.

“They’re talented… Really talented.”

Riverside scored twice in the first on RBI hits from Amanda Kolar and Delaney Keith. Four more runs came across in the second, with Kolar’s second double of the game driving in a pair.

The lead grew to 11-0 in the third with a five-run uprising. Megan Lehner and Emma Kovalchuk ripping RBI doubles, Kovalchuk’s caroming off the 220-foot fence in left. North got single runs in the fourth and fifth to stem the tide. An Olivia Augusta grounder plated Alyssa McPeek, who led off the fourth with a triple, to make it 11-1. An inning later, Maddie Russo doubled and eventually came home on a wild pitch.

But Riverside walked it off in the sixth when Jeras, with two runners on, hit a no-doubter into the trees in left-center.

“I knew,” Jeras said when asked whether she knew she got it all when she swung the bat.

Kolar chuckled.

“I knew. I already ran out there (to celebrate) and you weren’t even to first base yet.”

Afterward, Ross got an ice-bucket dumped on him when he wasn’t looking.

The journey was complete — well, sort of. Riverside plays North again on May 17, a game that holds no significance in the conference standings.

“It feels amazing,” Kolar said of the WRC title. “This was one of our huge goals this year, especially it being my senior year.”

Ross credited his team for answering the bell each and every game in the rugged WRC, which he told them in the postgame huddle is a hard enough conference to win, let alone do so unblemished.

“These girls have stayed focused and kept their eyes on the prize,” he said. “To run the conference like they did, it’s hard to do in the WRC, it really is.”

Both teams have games left to play. For North, league games against Riverside (May 17), South (May 18) and Mayfield (May 19) remain.

“I’ve gotta figure out a plan of how to break this slide we’re on,” McPeek said. “Some of this is on me. I’ve got to get them motivated every day now with seniors out (of school) with nothing left to play for. We’ve got to dig deep and search for the pride right now.”

With the WRC title wrapped up, Riverside turns its attention to the Division I district tournament on May 16 in Massillon. The fourth-seeded Beavers face fifth-seeded Walsh Jesuit at 2 p.m., with the winner advancing to the May 18 district final to play the winner of third-seeded New Philadelphia and 14th-seeded Boardman.

“We need to reminisce on what just happened and bring back the same energy and discipline and play the way we did today,” Kolar said.

“That’d be huge for our game on Monday.”

BARRY BOOHER — FOR THE NEWS-HERALD Riverside players await Emi Jeras at home after she hit a three-run homer to cap a 14-2win over North on May 14.