Resilient Springfield turns tables on Watkins Memorial in state semifinals

AKRON — Watkins Memorial blitzed Holland Springfield 12-3 during a regular season doubleheader. But the Blue Devils used it as homework, and on Thursday, they passed the big test.

Freshman Camryn Eckhart's two-run homer in the fourth inning brought them back from a 1-0 deficit, and provided the spark for a 4-2 victory in the Division I state semifinals at Akron Firestone Stadium.

"We put everything we had into scouting and preparing for this great Watkins team, and it played out. I couldn't tell you a thing about these next two teams," said 21-year coach Rob Gwozdz, whose 25-6 club will make its first-ever state finals appearance Saturday against the Lakota West-North Canton Hoover winner. "We had a great week of practice, changed our offensive approach and our lineup. We were not the same team they saw in April," he said.

The Warriors had won 6-0 and 6-3 in the doubleheader.

"Games at this level are coin flip games," said a disconsolate Watkins coach Mike Jellison, whose team finished 28-3 after losing in the state finals last year. "You're playing great teams, like we did in the regional, and today, we lost the coin flip."

Junior southpaw Mady Yackee, who will pitch at Toledo, kept her team in the game down just 1-0 after the Warriors pushed across a first-inning run. Things turned in a hurry in the fourth against fireballing Watkins sophomore Carsyn Cassady.

Ava Littlin reached on a rare Warriors' error, and Eckhart shot a two-run blast over the left field fence for a 2-1 lead. In the fifth, Cassady issued her fourth and fifth walks, and both runners scored, on Eckhart's squeeze bunt and P.J. Turner's two-out RBI single, suddenly making it 4-1.

"They figured out the sequence of what we were thinking," said Cassady, who allowed eight hits and struck out nine. "They made the adjustments. I was going high and low, in and out, and they really picked up on it."

"It was an inside pitch, and that's what I'm looking for most of the time," Eckhart said of her home run. "I just swung, and it went. I was nervous, but I knew I had to win that battle."

Yackee, who pitched a six-hitter, fanning nine and walking only one, saw Watkins stage a sixth-inning rally. Hannah Hunt doubled and scored on Jordyn Wycuff's single. But she retired the next three batters, then three in a row in the seventh, as freshman right fielder Hannah Schlachter made a diving catch of Christina Kilkenny's looping liner. The Blue Devils started four freshmen.

"We knew Yackee was a great pitcher, and we knew what she threw. Screwball away and changeup, and we worked on it the last two or three days," Jellison said. "She hit her spots, and it was away, away, away. We kept taking it the opposite way, and they shifted over and made the plays."

The Warriors looked to be off and running in the first inning. Gerhardt walked, stole second, went to third on Hunt's fly to right, and scored when the first baseman bobbled Wycuff's squeeze bunt. But Wycuff was caught stealing, making an ensuing double by Cortney Dobbs a moot point.

Springfield also avenged two earlier losses to top-ranked Whitehouse Anthony Wayne in the regional finals. So the Blue Devils weren't coming in intimidated.

"We took two great teams out of the tournament earlier, so we knew we weren't beneath anyone," said Miller, a senior who had three hits. Hunt and Kilkenny had two hits apiece for Watkins.

The Warriors have come a long way since Jellison took over the program. He wishes it could have ended differently for his seniors, who were a 1-0 loss away in last year's state finals from being a state champion.

"I've coached four of them since they were six years old," he said. "The parents begged me to take this job, and that was back when they had won like one game. I'm glad I did."

"I'll always remember all the fun I've had with my teammates, like last year at the state, when we had that rain delay," Hunt said.

The cupboard will be far from bare for Watkins. Sophomore batterymates Cassady and Wycuff will return, along with several other key players. Freshmen Kendal Tellings and Maleya Thompson both pinch hit in the game.

"It's going to be the same thing next year. Come in with a lot of confidence, and put in all the work that we usually do," Wycuff said. "And she (Cassady) will be right by my side."

"We're going to get this (a state title) yet," Cassady said.

dweidig@gannett.com

740-704-7973

Twitter: @noz75

Instagram: @dfweidig

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Resilient Springfield turns tables on Watkins in state semifinals