Bradley, Marysville, Newark, Watkins Memorial win Division I softball district titles
Andrea Day takes her job as a tone-setter seriously, and with that came some excitement and impatience entering a Division I softball district final Friday.
Hilliard Bradley’s junior third baseman and leadoff hitter lined the first pitch against Olentangy Berlin to center field for a single, scored the only run the eighth-seeded Jaguars ended up needing on a sacrifice fly and added insurance in the third inning with a two-run home run as Bradley defeated 17th-seeded Berlin 4-0 at Pickerington Central.
“I went in thinking they’d want to start me with a strike and I had to set the tone for my team,” said Day, an Akron commit. “We like to start early, and we did today. We knew they had good hitting and good defense and we just had to be better than them.”
Izzy Scaff added two hits and Jillian Meszaros had an RBI single for Bradley (19-5), which won the second district championship in the program’s 13-year history. The other came in 2017.
The Jaguars will play Watkins Memorial in a regional semifinal at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Olentangy Orange.
Bradley pitcher Chloe Sayre relied on her curveball and dropball to scatter five hits, strike out three and walk one.
“My location is super important, but I’ve been able to rely on my teammates’ defense throughout the season,” said Sayre, a Walsh signee. “I had to have confidence going into this. I had to go right after their hitters and hit my spots.”
Berlin, which was seeking its first district title, was limited to singles from Jocelyn Franz, Elizabeth Sprecher and Izzie Wilson and hit only two balls to the outfield. Wilson, a center fielder, has signed with Ohio University.
The Bears (18-10) were coming off a 4-2 upset of third-seeded and ninth-ranked Teays Valley in a district semifinal Monday.
“We had an approach we wanted to take and we knew what (Sayre) was going to give us, but she was phenomenal,” Berlin coach Jenna Haskins said. “We couldn’t find our spark. Our defense kept us in it. That’s what got us this far. Our bats are usually there with our energy. Some days you have it, some days you don’t.”
Marysville 3, Lancaster 2
Tareyn Born’s two-run single in the first inning, followed by an RBI single from Sienna Hutchins, gave the fifth-seeded Monarchs all the runs they needed to repeat as district champions.
Born allowed only one hit, walked one and struck out five to advance Marysville (24-4) into a regional semifinal against Newark at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Orange.
Abri Schmutz and Haley Winans each had two hits for the Monarchs.
“We knew we had to hit early in the count because (Lancaster pitcher Reese Poston) is so good with her control,” Monarchs coach Jennifer Segner-Maxwell said. “We did the same thing. We wanted to get ahead and have them hit our pitches. (Born) did a good job mixing it up. She’s been trusting her changeup more lately and that’s made her more effective.”
Fourth-seeded Lancaster (21-6) got its only runs in the second, when a ground ball from Lily Stoughton turned into a two-run error.
Poston struck out five but walked five and gave up six hits for the Golden Gales, who were seeking their third district title in a row.
Newark 8, Westerville North 4
The 10th-seeded Wildcats scored five runs in their final two at-bats to blow open a tight district final against 11th-seeded North and capture their first title since 1992.
Jaylen Jackson and Alasandra Spears each had two hits to lead Newark (21-8), which fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first. All three North errors led directly to Wildcats runs.
Sarah Sickels’ two-run single highlighted a three-run second inning for Newark. Mallory Back drew a bases-loaded walk and Meah Morris added a two-run single in the Wildcats’ three-run fifth inning to make it 6-2.
Jackson struck out five, walked one and gave up six hits.
“This is something we could have never imagined,” Jackson said. “My curveball was really keeping them off balance. I settled down after the first inning.”
Gabby Botte had a two-run home run in the seventh inning and Calista Bright added two hits for North (18-8), which was trying for its first district championship since 1996.
Watkins Memorial 6, Mount Vernon 1
Ally Langwasser and Jordan Wycuff had three hits apiece and McKayla Jellison homered as the top-seeded and top-ranked Warriors (26-1) pulled away from the seventh-seeded Yellow Jackets (21-8).
Pitcher Carsyn Cassidy, a Pittsburgh commit, struck out 12, walked one and allowed two hits as Watkins Memorial captured its third consecutive district title.
“We never had a big inning, but we put tons of pressure on them,” Warriors coach Mike Jellison said. “We have a lot of girls who can produce and we can come at teams a bunch of different ways. We can bunt, we have good speed and we have great power, too.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Hilliard Bradley, Marysville win softball district titles
